Debauched
by Seifer Almasy 911
Summary: In the Capital Wasteland no matter who you say you are, or how hard you try to run from it, the past has a way of catching up with you no matter how hard you try to forget it ever happened, and in the Capital Wasteland everyone gets what they deserve.
1. Assembly

Debauched

Three long years after the so called Lone Wanderer had emerged from Vault 101 to find their missing father the Capital Wasteland had never been the same; here was one random, completely insignificant unimportant person who had lived underground for nearly their entire lives completely unaware of the outside world and suddenly they were running around changing everything. Megaton, Tenpenny Tower, Galaxy News Radio, the Brotherhood of Steel, everyone and everywhere was suddenly being affected by the Lone Wanderer - and then just as suddenly they disappeared. No one was quite sure what had happened and the Brotherhood while most likely to know didn't seem to, or else were sticking to their usual secretive ways. Just like that the wasteland had been suddenly and dramatically changed and now its inhabitants were left to deal with the changes on their own.

In the three years since the Lone Wanderer's disappearance many things had changed, and many more had stayed the same,Derek knew that all too well though he didn't always mind. Whiskey still made you drunk enough to forget your problems if only for a moment and Moriarty's Saloon still provided plenty of drinks. Not necessarily cheap drinks, but strong ones, stronger than down at the Lantern - though Derek didn't mind spending time around Leo, he was always good company, mainly because they shared their interest in chems and both wished to keep it a secret interest. Still, Derek couldn't lie to himself, he had hoped Megaton would prove to be more than it had - now he simply passed the days drinking, shooting Med-X or taking pot shots at passing critters to keep the town "safe". That of course had lead to him - drunkenly of course - deciding to join up with the next passing caravan as hired security and now there was no way out of it. Derek had signed a contract between Megaton and Canterbury Commons, now he was officially lent to the next passing caravan as a hired gun so they could make their runs.

_Exactly what I needed, to on a fucking adventure for some assholes from Canterbury._

As much as the idea bothered him Derek still couldn't lie to himself, he needed to get moving, to get some action in his life. He'd spent most of it wandering the wasteland and Megaton wasn't his speed at all; at the very least back on the outside he'd have something to do.

"Yeah... caravans..." Derek muttered to himself.

"Hmm? You had one too many again I think." Gob grumbled in his usual rough voice as he looked up from wiping the bar clean, "Go home."

"Whatever." Derek muttered, his glazed over eyes suddenly lighting up with the will, if not the energy or coordination to strike Gob upside the head.

Realizing his inability to turn will into action successfully Derek simply got to his feet slowly and made his way toward the door, passing what had been Lucy West's usual place by the door until she'd finally found someone to help her with her troubles. Lucy had left for Arefu once again some time ago, finally leaving Megaton after her parents were found dead and her brother found by the legendary Lone Wanderer. She'd managed to leave but like Nova constantly pointed out it seemed no one else ever did - except now. Canterbury Commons had become extremely important in the Capitol Wasteland over time, especially with the Lone Wanderer's help and the failure of Project Purity. Water meant distribution, distribution meant caravans, caravans meant Canterbury. The Project had failed but people had come to realize they needed to secure Canterbuy's favor if they were to be truly successful settlements. Now Megaton was going out of its way to get on their good side, even offering contracts between its citizens and Canterbury Commons, while Megaton was very free form as a settlement the contracts were indeed binding, lest you didn't want to return to either Megaton or Canterbury Commons. Lucas Simms had seen to it that people stuck to their commitments though he'd also made sure there was at least one way out, maintaining some form of independence when he'd convinced them to let someone buy their way out of a contract - most people wouldn't have the caps for it though.

"Fuckruckmucking sherrif's hat." Derek mumbled to himself, passing by a few people on his way to his house which had once been Lucy West's, bough only two days after she'd left a year ago, deciding it was best to head back to Arefu after all.

Not long after he barely managed to unlock the door and get inside Derek fell over onto his bed and passed out, not waking until noon the next day with a massive headache; the fact that he only had about an hour to get ready before the caravan arrived didn't make things any better. Barely on his feet Derek wandered around for a moment almost unaware of what he was doing until he finally got his bearings - though he still felt much too sick to be standing for more than a minute at a time - but he managed to get his gear together. Chinese assault rifle, ammo, his sidearm, a sawn off shotgun he carried for emergencies and a knife made up the deadly portion of his equipment while Mirelurk meat in various forms made up most of his food supply, and all the other odd essentials were there as well.

_Fucking caravans. Fucking caps. Least I'm outta here._

Angelina had been a bounty hunter, body guard and general mercenary for most of her life and seen most things people claimed to have out in the wasteland and yet somehow the sight of a man with short messy dark green hair stumbling out of Megaton's entrance still managed to surprise nearly bald wasteland wanderer.

_Great, this guy's who we've been waiting for? Great._ Angelina sighed inwardly and shook her head, adjusting the rifle slung over her shoulder, "Hurry up."

"Yeah yeah." Derek waved her off, "Not like I'm late or nothing."

"You're drunk."

"Was drunk. Was."

"It doesn't much matter." Doc Jones interrupted, "If everything's in order, we've all our group together and can head out."

"Right." Derek nodded, putting on a worn out baseball cap, "Let's roll then."

If nothing else Angelina already liked the fact that whoever the last man in their group was he wasn't one for words or waiting around; of course she also knew that meant a lot of other things. That meant not only was he a lot like her but he was also possibly one to shoot first and ask questions later, maybe even a former raider. Whoever he was he hadn't been there for the brief conversation they'd had and didn't know who anyone else was, nor did they know him, and he didn't know what exactly was going on either - something just as deadly as being quick to overreact. Derek on the other hand wasn't too concerned with who he made up the rest of the group, all he'd known when he'd signed up for the job was that medical supplies were being moved out west and needed extra security; they were after all heading to Girdershade, not exactly the worst place in the wastes but one which saw its fair share of attacks - more so, considering its proximity to several well known raider hang outs. Hang outs Derek knew all too well, a thought that made him wonder why he'd even accepted the job in the first place, he'd headed east to Megaton to get away from the raiders and actually live a comfortable life - something Evergreen Mills nor any other camp could provide. He figured maybe it was for closure, or perhaps he just couldn't walk away from the action. Either way it didn't matter much now that he was out in the wastes again.

"So where we going?" Derek asked finally.

"Tenpenny Tower, or whatever they've decided to call it now." Doc Jones shrugged, looking back at his sizeable group of merchants and caravan guards, "We'll be stopping once or twice along the way, but we're staying out of any populated areas until then."

"And then?"

"Why, and then Girdershade, my friend. And then Girdershade. After, of course, some trading with the fine residents of the reformed Tenpenny Tower."

Angelina snorted, "Right. Reformed. Buncha Ghouls think they can take whatever they want, think we're supposed to feel sorry for them. Tenpenny could keep out whoever the fuck he wanted, right or wrong, fucking self victimizing Ghouls."

"Amen." Derek smirked, "Heard they had some fun with whoever was in there when they showed up... apparently some ferals were let loose, did most of the work."

"Yeah, apparently Dashwood killed more than a few of 'em before he got a five-five-six lobotomy courtesy of one of the non-ferals."

"S'too bad." Derek shrugged, not caring in the least, "Hopefully someone'll drive them outta there too, always thought it looked rather comfy."

Of course Derek left out that he wouldn't ever move into Tenpenny Tower even once everyone that knew of his past life were dead, word of mouth made sure that even those who hadn't met him knew who he was by reputation, but he stayed away from the western settlements all the same. When Derek stopped to think about it though that didn't make sense even now that he was living in Megaton, he had after all moved into Lucy West's house but only after having run into her as she was making her way to Arefu - alone. It had simply been too easy, too natural, she was passing through Springvale like a fool and had run into Derek who was on his way to Megaton and wisely avoiding the raider camp in the school - if they'd found out he was in Megaton they could've blown his cover. Even worse, possibly, was that he had been foolish enough to rob and kill Lucy not far from the city. If anyone ever found out about what had happened that day he would surely be killed on the spot.

Completely unaware of her compnaion's past Angelina simply kept marching silently along with everyone else, appreciating the silence almost as much as Derek who still had a headache that made his head feel like it was going to split in half. Quiet meant being able to concentrate, being able to hear everything around you, being able to survive - something Angelina had learned to do early on. Survival was key, all else could wait, Angelina had been tought that lesson swiftly and severely when she'd run into a band of raiders while out scavenging at only the age of seventeen. They had completely surprised her, taken her completely off guard and had their way with her and the two others with her, killing Dennis after torturing him for what seemed like days on end but had only been two. Angelina could still see it as clearly as ever, as if it had happened not five minutes ago; the knife digging into his throat and sawing through it until his head was taken completely off. Angelina and Margaret would've suffered similar fates had the raiders not decided they would make good slaves, if only for a short while before finally allowing them the same sweet release of death. Angelina had waited four long, horrible days for that moment when they finally killed her, but it never came, one loud, drunken chem soaked night the raiders had let it slip that they would be sold into slavery at Paradise Falls, perhaps the most well known hell hole in all the Capital Wasteland. That night was when something in Angelina had started to repair itself, she'd already snapped but now something was rewiring itself deep inside her brain and telling her to fight, kill and survive, to make them pay and get as far away from their mangled corpses as possible.

Angelina sighed inwardly yet again as she realized she was dwelling on the past again and did her best to ignore the thought, pushing it to the back of her mind and then even further still. Thinking about things like that could get you killed, mainly because they were extremely distracting but because they were also a weakness and as soon as some wasteland wannabe hard ass caught wind of it they'd use it against you like the raiders she'd encountered had done. Angelina would never let that happen again, and staring out into the barren distance she knew that whoever tried to mess with her in such a way would be waiting for their death just as eagerly as she once had.

Just as Angelina had left that thougth behind she found herself just as distracted as she kept having to remind herself she would be, and blinked as she realized Doc Jones was saying something about stopping soon and Derek - she'd barely caught his name in the brief conversation he'd had with Jones while she was day dreaming - muttered something about being tired and needing the rest. Angelina couldn't help but shake her head, everyone else in the group seemed alright but she would've rather they had left without Derek who seemed to be nothing but a hinderance.

"Here." Angelina pulled a bottle of dirty water from her pack, holding it out over to Derek on the other side of a pack Brahmin, _If it gets you to shut up._

Derek hesitated for only a second before taking the water, eyeing Angelina as he did so. There was something about her he didn't quite like but Derek couldn't figure it out, other than the fact that women with shaved hair looked horrible - Derek quickly decided he'd still fuck her though. Something about women in combat armor balanced out the fact that Angelina also had shaved her hair.

"Thanks." Derek barely murmured as he closed the half empty bottle and held it back out to Angelina.

"Keep it." She didn't even look at him.

Derek shrugged and put the bottle in his pack and kept walking, out toward a rocky out cropping that provided some degree of shade from the sun at the angle it was currently at, that was where Doc Jones decided they would stop and so they did.

"So what's up with this caravan anyway?" Derek finally asked, his headache starting to subside as he lowered himself to the ground slowly and leaned against the outcropping, "Doc Jones? The contract didn't say much, but that's not a name most people go by."

"I adopted my current moniker in honor of a fallen friend, you could say he was instrumental in turning my life around." Jones started, taking a seat himself nearby, "Doc Hoff was a well known and respected man, a talented merchant that offered only the best items to a badly hurting wasteland... and all it ever did was kill him."

At that very moment, with those very words, while they meant very little to anyone else in the group one of the hired guns in particular felt uneasy. Very uneasy. Suddenly he realized why Doc Jones was so familiar, why this all seemed so strange to him, and that was when he realized the death of the merchant known as Doc Hoff had not only not been forgotten as was to be expected, but someone had survived the raid on his caravan. Daniel had been the one that had killed Doc Hoff, he had been there when the lightly guarded caravan had stopped at Agatha's house, he had been the one to kill both him and her and now he was working with the one and only survivor a year after he had done so.

_Fucking getting the hell outta here as soon as fucking possible._ Daniel made a mental note and did his best to cover up his discomfort with discussing the subject.

"But that's all in the past, now." Doc Jones shrugged, not offering anymore about himself, "And the past isn't going to help save anyone, no matter what the Brotherhood Of Steel might have to say about it."

"Whatever you say." Derek shrugged, retrieving the water Angelina had given him and taking a sip, "I'm just here to make some caps."

"And so you shall, my friend, so you shall." Jones smirked, "It wouldn't do well to refuse to pay such heavily armed and highly trained individuals as yourselves now would it?"

"Guess not." Derek agreed, _So these assholes know what they're doing then, figures, she's got combat armor after all..._

Whoever made up the motley crew Derek now found himself to be a part of he decided it would be wise to keep his old raider habits in check, unlike with Lucy West, lest he end up dead at the hands of his supposed allies.

A half hour and some useless conversation later the group found themselves following Doc Jones' lead again, the six of them roughly forming a circle around several pack Brahmin and two other caravan merchants working with Jones. They caravan was relatively well protected in that fashion and it still allowed them to travel quickly, something Daniel noted, deciding that he definitely had to make his exit as soon as he could instead of trying to finish what he had started. He was alone, completely outnumbered and outgunned, his only hope would've been to kill them all in their sleep - and he likely could've done so. The trip to Tennpenny tower would take more than a day and they would have to stop again eventually, this combined with the fact that Daniel was more than a bit skilled at such things meant it wouldn't prove all that difficult. Still he had taken a chance by hitting a well known and liked caravan merchant, he wasn't about to take that chance again unless he absolutely had to. No one knew his secret, and he knew none of theirs except Jones', if it could be considered a secret at all that he had been there when Doc Hoff had been killed.

"So then, you've been running things for a while?" Daniel asked, watching Jones carefully.

"Why yes, yes I have," Jones turned to face him now, allowing himself a smile, "And I do think I've done a rather splendid job too. You see, Canterbury Commons, it was the perfect place for merchants. Safe, secure, and willing to cooperate with them more than any other settlement. Hoff, he understood this, and so I simply had to step in and continue his efforts."

"That so?" Daniel nodded after a moment of thought, "Guess I should've signed up with you a long time ago instead of messing around with all those other caravans."

"Yes, perhaps you should've." Jones agreed, "But one cannot always be so picky who one works for in the wasteland, I'm sure we've all learned that lesson by now."

"Yeah, I suppose so..." Daniel agreed, nodding after yet another moment, "Still, I'm sure there's more caps in working with you, you sure do seem to know what you're doing."

"I learned from the best." Jones smiled again, shrugged, and offered nothing more.

"Yeah, true." Daniel agreed quietly, shrugging off his pack to dig through it for water as everyone else sat around relatively quietly now, occasional conversations sprouting up here and there.

Though nothing important was being said Daniel listened closely all the same, it had been a skill he'd picked up in Rivet City when he had worked as a security guard but that was long ago and he hardly thought about it if he could help it. All the same it proved a useful skill, though he learned nothing new of his companions. The merchants had been working with Jones for a while, all except two, new comers to Canterbury Commons looking to get their start with an established caravan; the guards on the other hand were a bit more mysterious though daniel knew that was probably to be expected as most hired guns in the wasteland had probably seen and done things that needn't be talked about - or worse were running from some of those things just like him.

"We should be off." Doc Jones rose up and brushed off his now dusty suit, "We've still a ways to go after all."

Everyone simply nodded and prepared to head further west, further out into still further dangerous areas. The Brotherhood Of Steel and many other groups had fought over control of the Capital Wasteland and some had indeed whether intending to or not made it a slightly safe, better place than it had been before but in the end what lie to the west of downtown was still rather lawless and the further out one went the more chaotic and dangerous it became. Despite the best efforts of the residents of Girdershade, long since having become more than a simple hiding place for its two founding residents, the area all around them had become even more dangerous with their small town being the only real place of safety - raiders never bothered attacking entire towns even that far west as it almost always proved less viable than simply waiting for caravans and other travelers. The only other major settlement that was in the area and safe from raiders or other wasteland threats was Tenpenny Tower, now just as much an inpenetrable fort as ever before, perhaps even more so with the Ghouls so desperate to keep what had taken them so much time and effort to gain; outside of either of those locations everyone knew if they ran into trouble they were in for a fight with no one to help them but that didn't trouble them.

After yet another hour of marching Angelina had noticed everyone except Derek, yet again, seemed to be doing fine. The green haired man still had his baseball cap on and was still carrying his Chinese assault rifle slung over his sholder, revolver at his side though Angelina was sure she'd seen a sawn off shotgun hidden in his gear when he'd been messing with it earlier. Whoever he was not only was he dangerous because he was a mess he was a well armed mess, he was definitely going to be a problem but there was nothing she could do except hope he wasn't under contract for more than the trip to and from Girdershade and would leave her to do her job properly after that. So many people always getting in her way it was almost enough to driver her insane but only almost, Angelina was far too hardened for something like that to truly get to her however, no matter how much she disliked inefficiency or laziness such as his. Angelina had the deceny to only drink when it wouldn't interfer with her job, and even then she could easily ignore it and conduct herself properly; only the lowest form of human life let themselves be such a mess. With yet another inward sigh Angelina adjusted the assault rifle slung over her shoulder and gazed out into the distance off to the side, scanning the horizon though she didn't see anything then looked over to Derek's side of the caravan and found nothing again.

"Like the view?"

Angelina's eyes quickly shifted to Derek who was grinning, "Not even a little."

"Save the flirting for later." Daniel muttered, "You're gonna get us all killed."

"Agreed." Doc Jones didn't bother looking back at them as he lead the caravan, "And what good would you be to me dead?"

"Yeah yeah, whatever, not my fault I'm just that damn sexy." Derek chuckled, "But I'll try to keep it in check."

"Good. Do that." Angelina snapped, pointing after a moment, "And stand further up ahead of me, I think that's where they'll be shooting from."

"See something?" Doc Jones slowed down.

"Think so." Angelina nodded, already having unslung her rifle and prepared for battle, "By that low hill, with the boulder on the one side."

"Excellent, excellent..." Jones turned, smiling as he looked at everyone in turn, "Well then, I suppose it would be wise to go introduce ourselves to our new friends,."

"Of course." Derek grinned, "Wouldn't want to be rude."


	2. Where There's Smoke

Debauched

The group of raiders turned out to hardly have been prepared and definitely hadn't expected to have their would be prety attack them. If Derek had stopped to think about it as he wrecklessly charged their position he would've considered them amateurs, below him, but he simply rushed to the top of the low hill they were hiding behind and grinned down at them.

"Surprise! We've come to taste your blood!" Derek shouted, lazily pointing his rifle at the small group from his hip before he opened fire.

The group of raiders scrambled to recover and react but their efforts didn't get them very far. Derek had quite a lead on everyone else but he alone quickly wounded two raiders with his initial volley emptying half his magazine without letting up. Daniel had quickly rushed after him to make sure he wasn't killed and started shooting just as Derek was beginning to reload. The raiders were still so unprepared that he didn't have to worry much about their reaction as he easily gunned down one of the ones Derek had injured and turned his attention to the next, but by then Angelina and everyone else had flanked them from both sides and what happened next went by even more quickly; Derek finished reloading and just as he brought his rifle up to his shoulder to actually aim this time and the raiders barely got a few shots off in his and Daniel's direction before the whole group opened fire tearing them apart. Bullets punched through them from every direction, confusing them as the initial pain set in from their wounds but before those could even turn into the fiery sting of a gunshot wound that had set in more blows that felt like being punched by a Super Mutant struck them. In seconds flat all but the apparent leader, the only one in any sort of armor instead of wasteland rags, was the only one left and amazingly still standing - this was quickly corrected as Derek fired again, destroying her face with a quick burst before the raider could line up a shot.

"Takes care of that." Derek smirked, propping his rifle against his shoulder as he slowly made his way down to the dead bodies, closely looking over the leader of the group as he approached her body.

She didn't look familiar, but Derek wouldn't have said anything even if she had, he simply would've gone about looking for any ammunition she was carrying like he was at the moment, finding nothing but rounds no one needed which he ignored.

"Well then, if that's all taken care of," Jones surveyed the scene of carnage, "We should probably be going - before more show up."

"Yeah," Derek grunted, looking up at him atop the gentle hill, "Probably."

Angelina kept pace with everyone else in the caravan as they slowly started moving again, moving away from the carnage left behind. A small band of raiders had apparently thought it wise to lay in wait for someone heading west, or so it seemed. They had been dispatched quickly and easily enough, even with Derek charging in head on nearly getting himself shot in the process, and once he was done picking through the bodies for ammunition they had started moving again. Since then Angelina had simply kept quiet, lest she provoke him into saying or doing something else idiotic and then she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't put a bullet in his head. Daniel on the other hand had at least shown some sort of intelligence, at least enough to keep from getting everyone in the caravan killed and was alright in her book; in fact he seemed to even be competent which matched his reputation in Canterbury Commons, where they both regularly worked out of for both caravans and anyone else with enough caps to keep them interested. Daniel had been there only for two months so far but he was known for being very business oriented and possibly more importantly capable, there were rumors that he may have been a gunslinger before showing up in town, others however said he'd come up from Rivet City after Project Purity drew in more and more people and the city exploded into an even larger, sprawling settlement, though no one seemed to know why anyone would've wanted to leave back when things were going so well for the city. Whoever her companions were, as they kept trudging along in the painfully barren, scorched and generally uneasy to look at wasteland she didn't know much if anything about the rest of them, who were mostly other mercenaries from Canterbury Commons or hired guns from Megaton having signed their lives away on contracts.

"Don't remember it being this far out." Daniel murmured, gazing out into the distance, "Seems longer than I remember."

"It is a long walk," Jones shrugged, something he seemed to be rather fond of, without looking back at him, "The tower _is_ rather isolated. I suppose that's part of the charm."

"Yeah," Derek snorted, "Sure. All it does is scream 'Hey, come take our stuff! We've got no where to run or hide!', it's a death trap. They're lucky they've got all those guns. Especially considering those Outcast assholes're crawling all over the place in the south."

"Ah, I don't believe they've expanded that far west." Jones pointed out, smiling slightly to himself, "But very observant indeed. They wouldn't get along too well. Tenpenny Tower is safe, but only as long as it keeps its fortress like state. It is doomed to be reclaimed by the wasteland... eventually."

"Eventually." Derek agreed.

"Yeah, well, it's still further than I remember. Gettin' too old for this, I guess." Daniel grumbled, "Can't hoof it so far anymore."

"You're doing fine, it isn't far now." Jones reassured him, "Have any of you ever been to the tower itself?"

Derek quickly swallowed a yes, almost replying without thinking, something Angelina seemed to have noticed from her side of the caravan though she said nothing and he wasn't aware of it.

"Once or twice." Daniel admitted, noticing just as Angelina had, though he didn't pause as he kept staring at Derek from behind, "A while back. A life time ago. Worked there for a while."

"Oh? Been inside the king's castle?" Derek smirked, glancing over his shoulder at Daniel, "You play sophisticate with all those other assholes too? Or were you just their guard dog?"

"Fuck you. The money was good, didn't have to put up with anyone like you, hell, we were only ever attacked by raiders once the entire time I was there. Didn't end well for them."

"Don't imagine it would." Angelina admitted, "Any of them even get through the front gate?"

"Hardly."

Derek went quiet as the conversation continued, knowing all too well just what they were talking about. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd been back at Evergreen Mills, easily the largest and most organized - for lack of a better word - raider camp in the entire area. It was practically a city save for the fact that it had no real systems in place to act like one, but plenty of coming and going, trading, buying and selling went on there, if only of a slightly more violent and chaotic variety. Derek had been there for the raid on Tenpenny Tower, he had been strongly opposed to the idea of out right attacking such a heavily fortified and well defended position - they were raiders, not Talon company. They had their limits, soft targets were best, caravans and wasteland wanderers, less well guarded camps every now and then and a decent living could be made; Derek however was never in any real position of power and despite his reputation no one would listen. It had been a massacre with the raiders on the losing side that time, the relatively small group that had been convinced to tag along was supplemented by a slightly larger one made up by their allies in the Cliffside Caverns and nearly everyone had died or been seriously injured. Derek himself had been shot twice, both relatively minor wounds, and he'd made a run for it just as everyone had once things fell apart. Nails, Terry, Jackal, Vonna and Nolan had all died in the failed raid, and though Derek certainly wasn't attached to any of them seeing the people that came closest to what a raider could call "family" die all in one fell swoop prompted his readying to leave for Megaton.

"Yeah? Why didn't anyone go and finish them?" Angelina asked once Daniel had told them all of what had happened that day, Derek only now starting to pay attention again.

"Tenpenny said no." Daniel shrugged, "And Gustavo made damn sure we listened. He liked his job, more so than the security it afforded him I think. The man loved being able to do shit things to people. Wasn't even about doing what he had to, the man was just cruel."

"Probably would've shot him myself if I was there."

"Probably, I know some of us were definitely tempted to. Bastard got what he had coming though."

"Yes, I hear he perished in the ghoul attack." Jones interrupted, "One can only wonder what it will be that leads to the ghouls perishing as well."

"Who knows." Angelina shrugged, "Smart money's still on the Outcasts expanding even further west. The Brotherhood's already sent Talon company running, the Outcasts haven't been any nicer." 

"Yes... I suppose we shall have to wait and see. Hopefully they'll be kind enough to let us conduct our business before they strike, yes?"

"Hopefully." Angelina nodded, shifting the weight of the rifle around in her hands, having been carrying it since they'd fought the raiders earlier, "Ready for 'em if not."

That said she looked over at Derek, "So what about you? Daniel was a guard at the tower, what about you?"

"Haven't you heard? Nothing interesting happens in Megaton." Derek shrugged, acting as entirely uninterested as possible, which was rather easy since he didn't care to get to know them or have them know any more about him than they already did.

"Can't say I have." Angelina replied quickly, pressing him even more, "Never really hung out around Megaton. Downtown girl myself."

"Yeah? Good for you. Don't be such a prying cunt."

"Enough of that." Jones snapped, the first time he'd ever seemed to raise his voice at all though he still seemed perfectly calmn and in control.

"Yeah, alright." Derek muttered.

Angelina quietly went back to marching along through the wasteland, not bothering to offer a verbal reply. Yet again she made a mental note to simply ignore Derek and just keep an eye on him, lest he did something stupid to get them all killed. Instead of bothering with him she simply kept her mind on the job, scanning every which way, never knowing where exactly the next set of raiders or a mutated animal would attack from. While Angelina offered them no support, as they kept moving along she couldn't help but hope the Brotherhood Outcasts really did decide expanding even further west was in their best interests, it would certainly purge the wasteland in a way not unlike that of the Scourge the Brotherhood pretended wasn't simply whole sale slaughter of anything that got in their way in The Pitt; it would also at the very least allow her to come out this way with more caravans and have to worry less, even when paired with an idiot like Derek. It would also possibly open up an entirely different line of work as well, from what Angelina had gathered though they were as xenophobic as ever even the Outcasts couldn't avoid using hired guns on occasion and the further they spread out and the more they tried to do the more they would need someone like her.

_Not a bad idea, might come back out this way some time._ Angelina thought, gazing out into the distance again, though now she didn't see anything.

With any luck if that did end up happening, Angelina continued with her train of thought, then the Outcasts might end up posing a threat to the rest of the wasteland, which she still didn't mind. If the Brotherhood Of Steel with their false promises and soft hearts were pushed out then perhaps some real good could be done, then the Super Mutant problem would finally be solved as well and most raiders would likely be slaughtered or scared into abandoning their life style. It certainly would've been a step in the right direction if nothing else, now that the Enclave was in hiding yet again someone had to step forward and make the hard decisions that needed to be confronted to get the wasteland moving again.

"There," Jones pointed to a location somewhere in the distance ahead of himself, speaking to the merchant next to him, "We'll set up there for the night. We'll finish the trip to the tower in the morning, shouldn't take too long."

The merchant simply nodded and the group kept marching on, occasionally discussing this or that as they moved toward their temporary destination; the Outcasts, the Brotherhood, the Ghouls now inhabiting Tenpenny Tower, what was becoming of the rest of the wasteland and Daniel even began to speak of himself a bit more freely. As they drew closer Daniel revealed he'd only been at Tenpenny Tower for a relatively short period of time, something not too common of most guards, and that he'd actually been born in Rivet City long before Project Purity's revival and subsequent failure. According to him when he'd left Rivet City had only just begun feeling the effects of the purifier's failure which was what had prompted him to leave, too many new people, too much for the city to take on all of a sudden and Rivet City security suddenly found themselves busy contending with raiders who thought the purifier failure was just a story they'd come up with to keep people away - not to mention all the desperate wastelanders who had thought much the same thing. Even with the Brotherhood Of Steel's assistance it had been too much of a strain and the Brotherhood began pulling out of the Jefferson Memorial, slowly but surely abandoning Rivet City to deal with everything on their own as they fell back and tried to regain their footing. Neither of them did, however, and the Brotherhood, as Doc Jones was quick to point out, were fading fast, just as their rivals the Enclave were wherever their remnants might've been hiding after the destruction of Raven Rock in the far north west. By the time the group had started dicussing just what they thought would happen because of those particular events they were nearly at their destination now not far off in the distance and the conversation shifted over to Talon company, and the role they'd been playing in the wasteland, as well as the Outcasts once again. The Brotherhood may have been the ones to drive Talon company out of Fort Independence when they'd left the Citadel in an attempt to protect Project Purity but in the end they'd been badly beaten in the war with the Enclave and ran off with their tail between their legs; Talon company however never recovered, and instead it was the Outcasts, mostly in the form of patrols sent to see if the rumors of their exile from Fort Independence were true, who sent the infamous mercenaries running for their lives. No compromise, no prisoners, no talk, no trial, men and women alike were slaughtered whenever and wherever they were found - most fought but were overpowered. Just like Doc Jones' prediction of Tenpenny Tower's future the mercenaries of Talon company were already a fading wasteland legend.

"If only the Outcasts would ignore DC and come out this way." Angelina sighed as they finally reached their destination and she took a seat, rifle across her lap.

"Yes, it's a shame I suppose, they'd do some good even without intending to."

"Doubt they'd really keep the raiders in line... doubt they'd even try. Shit," Derek sat down, digging through his pack for another bottle of dirty water, "They'd probably just take a few pot shots as they passed by, then watch as they tore apart another caravan, or a town, or whatever. SIck fucks, all of 'em. Worse than the raiders."

"How do you even fucking figure that? You spend too long hanging around some irradiated water or something?" Angelina snapped before Daniel could.

"How don't you?" Derek snorted, looking over at her as he opened his water, "Sure they're honest about it, hell, they don't even like any of us, but they claim to be saving humanity and then go and let it fall apart? For what? Like technology - _weapons_ - will save us. Like they can tell us who can and can't get their hands on what and when. What's stopping them from taking over if they ever wanted is numbers. They've never had the numbers, never will."

"You're crazy." Angelina shook her head, looking away, then back at him, "Maybe, but what they're doing is a lot more beneficial. They might not be out to save everyone, and think they can restart the world on their own with a few fancy toys, but indirectly, through killing off any weak, pesky problems the wasteland might have, they're helping more than anyone."

"Every man for himself huh?" Derek chuckled, sipping his water, "Yeah, alright. You try that, see how it works out. Fuckin' nothing there but an early grave."

Of course Derek didn't admit he also knew better than to hope to one day see civilization rebuild itself, or to think that depending on those around you was any better, but over time - and more slowly than he'd care to admit - he'd realized living on your own was miserable and hard.

"Whatever the case," Jones interrupted again before a real fight started, "The important thing is to do what one must, isn't it? Survival, prosperity - on a personal level - that motivates anyone and everyone."

"Even you?" Daniel questioned, though he didn't disagree.

"Even me." Jones confirmed with a quick nod, "It's why I joined Hoff's caravan in the first place, and why even after his death I kept it going."

"Guess we should be glad you did, pays pretty well." Daniel smirked.

"Yes, well, why not? If it brings everyone in Canterbury to my caravan and I get to pick my guards first, it's good business."

"Fair enough." Daniel shrugged, "Pays better than anything else in the wasteland."

"I hear those guys in the Scrapyard out by Minefield pay pretty well." Angelina admitted, shrugging, "But that's only if you've got a strong stomach, I hear they're... less than friendly."

"Yeah..." Derek nodded, "I've heard about them, sound like a real cold bunch."

"They seem like it." Angelina went on, "They... contacted me, thought I'd be just the person to bring in for some of their errands."

"And?" Daniel questioned, watching intently as Angelina paused, studying her carefully, he had once been given the same offer, knowing Angelina had worked with them would definitely make him less comfortable.

Angelina shook her head, "I didn't take it. Wasn't exactly my kinda thing."

"Yeah? What _is _your kind of thing?" Derek asked, "You're here after all."

"Anything that isn't out right murder mostly." Angelina admitted without a moment of hesitation, "That's not worth the trouble, neither is making too much of a scene. Bodyguard work, caravans, scouting, geomapping, anything else that pays well enough is fair game."

"Pff, sounds boring."

"You're from Megaton, what would you know?" Angelina snorted, "They're too busy with reinforcing their walls and using and abusing everyone from that Vault to really get out and see the wasteland."

"Didn't say I was _from_ Megaton, though. Not originally." Derek smirked.

"Well alright mister mysterious, out with it then, what about you?" Daniel asked, honestly interested at that point, "She's from downtown, I was born in Rivet City, Jones is from Canterbury, what about you?"

"From out west." Derek waved vaguely in the direction they had been headed, "Guess I'm a drifter if y'wanna be technical about it. Tried doing what I could to make it."

Derek wasn't necessarily lying nor telling the truth either, as everything he'd said had its origin in a bit of truth, he'd just worded it cleverly; he was indeed from out west, he'd lived in Evergreen Mills for quite some time but had never kept a regular home even then. Like most raiders Derek had wandered wherever the money and chems were, and thus he'd been as far as the Grisly Diner, and made stops at all known raider locations and some still secret ones in between.

"So it seems you're well suited to this task, then." Jones smiled as he entered the conversation, "Good, good, if anything happens we'll have a local to guide us."

"Yeah, sure." Derek shrugged.

"Well then, you're not entirely useless after all." Angelina muttered.

With that the group went back to their usual ways, the conversation becoming a bit more relaxed again and mostly covering wasteland happenings as of late, up to and including the Brotherhood all but abandoning downtown as they continued to collapse under more and more pressure, trying to regroup and consolidate their power. That had caused no end of complaints from everyone, particularly Three Dog who kept trying to convince everyone of his importance, and that the lessening of their presence at GNR would only weaken the "good fight" - most people simply didn't want GNR to be destroyed by Super Mutants as it was virtually the only radio station left. Derek didn't seem to mind the idea of Three Dog finally shutting up, Daniel didn't mind the news reports, and music always relieved the boredom that sometimes consumed the life of a wastelander, and Angelina simply found him to be a nuisance. Whatever became of him no one in the group seemed to mind too much, and as the conversation winded down until it stopped completely they all fell asleep.

The next morning everyone woke up roughly at the same time except Doc Jones who'd already risen and started cooking over a make shift camp fire, smiling as everyone got to their feet.

"Ah, wonderful. Just in time. Breakfast, then we move."

"Works for me." Derek yawned, rather obnoxiously, and dug into his pack for some of the food he'd brought along, it'd proved filling on many of his journeys before which allowed for him to carry less and get the same benefits out of it.

"We'll be at the tower in a couple hours then, won't we?" Daniel asked as he stood and stretched, checking his 10mm SMG after he did so.

"Yes, it shouldn't be too much longer." Jones nodded, "We'll get there, see what we can trade then be on our way."

"Right." Daniel nodded, taking a seat once again, "Speaking of which, how's the tower doing with things like that?"

"They're attempted to turn themselves into a trading post, much like Girdershade, they're a bit more safe, attacked less often... they do alright." Jones admitted, "I still don't believe they'll last much longer. Too isolated, even when people do come by, going east or west, they're not made to feel very welcome. Roy Phillips is no public relations expert."

"Sounds like a lot of people." Daniel shrugged, "The guys back at Rivet City weren't exactly worried about how they looked behind the fact that keeping a clean reputation would help them. Bannon was a sneaky bastard."

"And everyone else? I hear Rivet City had a problem with... corruption. At the highest levels."

"It did." Daniel admitted quickly, "It wasn't really anything most of us paid attention to, what with more pressing matters like those Mirelurks, or Project Purity. Raiders were hitting us pretty hard when they heard about that."

"What about the Brotherhood?"

"They stayed by the purifier itself mostly, helped us out around there, and even around town. We definitely got something out of it, but Li was already high tailing it by then and things we're falling apart. Throw in those wastelanders rioting every other day and the Brotherhood's none too pleasant reactions and it was all over with. I got out once I realized things weren't going to get any better."

"Cut your losses then? Suppose I should be glad, would've been down a talented guard if you hadn't left."

"True." Daniel smirked, "Anyway, enough of this depressing stuff."

Jones nodded, "Right then, everyone eat, we've got a long trip ahead of us."

"Aw, no more camp fire stories?" Derek grinned, "Oh well, fun while it lasted."

Angelina who had been listening to all this without much to say simply shrugged, though no one noticed. Daniel's tales provided a bit more information about him, though they could've easily been lies, Angelina had never spent much time around Rivet City or Tenpenny Tower and one of those places now lacked any survivors from when he had been there to agree with anything he'd said. Whoever Daniel was at least some of it seemed true if not all of it, Angelina had developed the useful talent of seeing through most lies, and there were plenty of half-truths and out right lies to sift through in the wasteland; even more when one was involved in her line of work. Whatever was wrong with what Daniel was saying Angelina didn't know, but she knew something was wrong all the same.

"There's the tower." Jones smiled to himself as Tenpenny Tower came into view in the distance, they still had a ways to walk but they'd be there quickly enough.

"Great." Derek shrugged, "Speaking of which, why d'ya need so much security if we're heading to the tower? Heard the raiders in Cliffside haven't been too active lately. We're taking the safe route, what gives?"

Jones hesitated, "It's... complicated. After what happened to Hoff, I've grown more and more fond of travelling as well protected as possible."

"Not so complicated." Derek shrugged again.

"I suppose not." Jones quickly agreed, still staring out ahead at the tower in the distance.

From that point on the group remained oddly quiet, though no one seemed to mind enough to actually speak up and break the silence, and remained so until they were almost at their destination which now loomed over them eerily, like a giant bloated sick green corpse from the old world taunting them with all the luxury their lives would never have even if they lived there. Angelina couldn't help but wonder what it was like all the same, relatively safe from the rest of the wasteland, able to actually live a somewhat normal, stable life. It wasn't for her however, nor did she expect anyone else in their group to feel any differently. None of them seemed too well suited to living like that otherwise they likely already would be instead of hoofing it out in the wasteland. In the end Angelina figured there were two basic types of people in the world anymore, those who were fit for city living and everyone else. Angelina was part of everyone else, the groups that scoured the wasteland fighting to survive and sometimes no matter how hard they fought not surviving even a day - and sometimes they survived but not entirely; something inside them broke. All too often Angelina had encountered people like that, torn apart by the wasteland and barely able to function, more than a few of them went crazy or developed fatal addictions. Some of them killed themselves. As far as she could tell none of her current group were those types of people, in fact other than Derek most of them seemed to be rather professional. That was all Angelina could ask for, some stability and the skills needed to help keep them all alive. Personality was a non-issue, if they didn't mesh then she simply wouldn't work with them again if she had a say in the matter. Who Angelina worked for was much the same, and worse, they dictated who else she had to deal with along the way. Now it was Jones, and he said she had to put up with the Ghouls, whom Angelina had never really approved of - at least not thos in Tenpenny Tower. Roy Phillips was a shining beacon of lunacy in a rolling sea of despair and stupidity. He claimed to represent Ghouls positively and yet he'd used force to take the tower and then killed or chased out whoever had survived that night, and then they wondered why no one spent more time around them than necessary. Whatever Angelina thought she'd keep it to herself, it didn't pay to have too big of a mouth in the wasteland.

"Anyone ever been to Tenpenny Tower anyway?" Derek asked suddenly, breaking Angelina's concentration again.

"Once." Angelina shrugged, "After Roy Phillips moved in, didn't care for it too much."

"Yeah? Sounds like a pretty swell guy from what I hear."

"Yeah, sure." Angelina snorted, "If you like someone watching every move you make, it's wonderful."

"I hear pre-war China was much the same way." Jones chuckled, "Perhaps old Roy has been brushing up at the Arlington Library?"

"Maybe." Angelina smirked, "If there's anything left there."

"Ah, of course, I forgot the Brotherhood had their way with it a while back didn't they? A pity."

"There was that fire, too." Angelina pointed out, shaking her head, "Someone got a little trigger happy with a flamethrower or something, burned half the place down, the rest is destroyed."

"Shame," Daniel chipped in, "I heard they took plenty of stuff from there but might've not taken it all. Apparently they even took stuff that wasn't related to weaponry, pretty odd."

"Yes, they seem to have actually been interested in whatever they could find. Perhaps they're starting to think everything is dangerous to us?"

"Yeah, like having something to read is going to kill us all." Daniel snorted, "They're just trying to control us even more than before. FIrst it was the weapons, now this."

"Maybe," Angelina agreed, "It doesn't really matter now, whatever they know we don't and that's that. Unless someone decides to break into the Citadel, which isn't too bad of an idea. It'd be put to a lot better use if someone else lived there."

"Or it'd turn into a blood bath, like all those people trying to get onto the ferry to Point Lookout." Derek reminded them all of what had happened to the Duchess, overloaded and with people starting to shoot wildly at each other it had been torn apart and sunk quickly.

"Or that." Angelina admitted with a shrug, "Either way. Speaking of which, weren't most of the people on the Duchess from Rivet City?"

"Yeah," Daniel shook his head, "Plenty of people wanted out, didn't matter where they were headed. Even Point Lookout seemed like a better option than here."

"And that's saying something." Derek snorted, "Then again I can't blame 'em, everything's gone to hell since that purifier fell apart. Doesn't matter that most people didn't have shit to do with it."

"It would seem the Brotherhood was right about one thing, we are definitely determined to destory ourselves." Jones mused.

"Or they think Dostoevsky's too depressing for a civilization trying to rebuild itself." Angelina chuckled, "Either way."

Jones grinned as they kept walking and talking, "I didn't realize anyone else here had managed to find any unburned books."

"Only two." Angelina sighed, shaking her head, "And a torn up old analysis of his work. I've been looking for the rest for a while."

"If only it were that easy." Jones shrugged, "Such is life."

"Yeah, I guess so." Angelina agreed.

With that the group fell yet again into relative silence, not much being said as they cautiously continued their journey, at the pace they were moving they would soon reach Tenpenny Tower which still loomed a little ways off in the d istance within a couple hours. The only problem with them approaching the tower at that particular point in time was that, as they kept walking, they could suddenly see flames burst through several of the windows and smoke started billowing out into the clear sky leaving dark black clouds stretching up as far as they could see.

"Shit." Derek slowly stopped and looked up at the flaming windows, smoking pouring out of them in a thick, steady stream, "That's never good."

"That'd be an understatement." Jones agreed, glaring at the burning tower for a moment as he thought quickly, "No use changing our route, it'll take too long any other way. Too many risks taking a less used route."

"There could be a lot more trouble waiting for us there than anywhere else." Daniel quickly pointed out, "Not worth it. Even if not, they'll expect us to help. It'll be just like Rivet City."

"Perhaps, we'll just have to see." Jones started toward the burning tower, not bothering to say anything else as he went.

"Yeah, I guess." Daniel grunted as he took off after him.

Despite moving as quickly as possible the caravan still wasn't moving all that quickly, it simply wasn't possible, and letting the Brahmin trail behind and possible losing them wasn't an option for anyone - after all they were all there for the money, and they all had a sneaking suspicion that everyone else in their group cared just as little for saving anyone's life in the burning Tenpenny Tower. At the very least none of them seemed too concerned with the possible loss of human, or near human depending on one's views, life inside the now raging inferno. It might've been that they'd been misprogrammed from the start, maybe they were simply ruined by the wasteland, Jones didn't know or care all he knew was that when they reached what was left of the tower they were going to help him make his money one way or another. Unfortunately as they finally derw near enough to the tower to feel the waves of intense heat it produced there didn't seem to be much left, and as far as they could tell no one had managed to escape the inferno - and if they hadn't by then, likely wouldn't.

"Well this turned out not to be a collossal waste of time." Daniel didn't bother lowering his voices, someone tossing themselves out of a third story window, hitting their head against the large wall far too hard to have survived, "Unless you wanna go put him out."

"You know, I hired you to be useful, not annoying."

"Yeah, and I signed up to escort you there and back, not go rushing into a raging inferno." Daniel shook his head and looked up at the tower as they walked around to the front gate and watched as the fire spread, none of them any more willing than Daniel to play hero.

"Doesn't look like we'll be getting in there." Derek stepped up to the front gate and watched as the front entrance kept burning, the entire tower now burning wildly, "Let's get outta here before it falls over and kills us all."

Jones clenched his jaw for just a moment before nodding in agreement, "Yes... let's."

And like nothing at all had happened the group turned and hurriedlly left. Whatever had gone on at the tower was soon left behind. It didn't concern any of them, and possibly more importantly none of them seemed to care. The further away from the tower they got the better, it would be attracting all sorts of unwanted attention and they didn't need to be associated with the fire in any way shape or form. They had enough to run from as it was.


	3. Canterbury Or Bust

Debauched

Canterbury Or Bust

Doc Jones' caravan had left the burning mass of death and destruction that was now Tenpenny Tower behind as quickly as possible; they'd quickly decided not only had no one survived, but more importantly if they were seen in the area there was nothing to stop someone from enforcing wasteland justice and trying to kill them all, assuming they'd been involved. Everyone, for their own reasons, couldn't help but feel it was a bit ironic, Daniel had been known to enforce his own brand of justice and hadn't exactly gone off on a righteous law abiding path to so, Angelina had become vengeful and violent, dealing with anyone that got in the way however she saw fit, and Derek simply found the idea of burning down Tenpenny Tower rather amusing - every raider in the west dreamed of watching it burn, if only after they'd taken everything of value. Doc Jones himself had his reasons as well, other than not wanting to be the victim of an angry Ghoul lynch mob - almost worse than regular ones - but he also didn't want his caravan associated with anything going on in the wasteland other than building a mercantile empire centered in Canterbury which he was well on his way to doing. The mysterious "Doctor" had shown up one day almost out of nowhere, as most people tended to arrive in the post-apocalyptic world, and with a stack of caps which he quickly put toward becoming involved in the caravan business, soon partnering with Doc Hoff. It had been Jones' own business skills that had helped their caravan rise to the top as Canterbury became overgrown with them, many sprouting up over night only to die out just as quickly once Project Purity was being worked on again. That was Jones' little secret, though, and he knew better than to let anyone in on his plan to eventually become the single most wealthy man in the settlment, giving him the sort of power Brahmin barons had in the New California Republic.

"Doc?" Angelina looked at Jones ahead of her, still leading the caravan, waiting for a reply she didn't get, raising her voice slightly, "Doc?"

"Oh, yes?" He glanced over his shoulder without breaking stride, "Sorry, yes?"

"You sure we shouldn't turn around?"

"No, no, the tower... it was a set back, but I'm sure we'll do better if we don't cut our losses and run."

"If you say so." Angelina shrugged, adjusting the rifle slung over her shoulder, "Eiher way I get paid."

"And that's why I'm getting my money's worth," Jones smiled slightly, "Can't have a successful business without making good on deals and using your resources as much as possible."

"If you say so." Angelina shrugged, she didn't know much about running a business, all she really knew was how to survive and how to market that ability, anything else was beyond her.

Part of knowing how to survive was knowing when to turn back, though, and Angelina knew that the fire could've been caused by raiders, and if they had finally decided to wipe out Tenpenny Tower then there was a lot of trouble that could be waiting them at Girdershade. If Jones said they were going anyway though, then they were going anyway, and no one questioned it. They all needed the money and none of them were afraid, or else they hid it very well. Angelina just didn't care, if she died then she wouldn't have anything to worry about, granted a death at the hands of raiders wasn't something anyone wanted to experience, but even that couldn't go on forever; unless they sold you to the Paradise Falls slavers, a fate she had nearly suffered. There were ways to end even that, though. Chief among them was letting the explosive slave collar they put on everyone do its job, but luckily - for lack of a better word - Angelina, as a mercenary, had worked with them before helping to find escaped slaves. It had been rather hypocritical, but there was nothing Angelina could've done, it was for her own survival and if they weren't able to save themselves then they would have to learn to love their new, miserable lives. Angelina had escaped on her own and so could they, that was just how the wasteland worked, and no matter how much someone might've helped you it was all up t o you in the end. That was how Angelina had survived since escaping the raiders that had captured her, and was how she would continue to survive. Of course Angelina didn't plan on being a mercenary forever, tthough it had come to be all she really knew, Angelina had made plans to build up a decent stack of caps and leave the DC area.

"So, what if Girdshade's having problems too?" Derek suddenly asked, voicing a thought many of them must of had, "I mean, I doubt raiders would be stupid enough to just burn the tower and not take anything, and I doubt they would be able to get inside..."

"Then our plans are ruined," Jones admitted, "And we have to turn back, but let's just hope that isn't the case."

"Yeah... alright."

Derek had shut up but he knew that whatever had happened at Tenpenny Tower was more than likely related to the raiders in the area. Many of them had been talking about storming the Ghoul haven and taking whatever they found, knowing there just had to be tons of valuables and caps stocked up from before the Ghouls even took over let alone afterward. It wouldn't surprise him if they had tried to enact their plan after he left, and it really didn't surprise him that they would do something like burning it down afterward. Raiders didn't bother with proper housing most of the time and Tenpenny Tower would've made them an obvious target for other raiders and wastelanders seeking justice. If it had been raiders from Evergreen Mills or Cliffside Caverns Derek knew they would likely go out and attack Girdershade as well, and if they were doing either of those things let alone both they would be operating in full force, that meant a lot more trouble than the caravan was prepared for.

"What if it does happen, anyway? Not like we can't handle it." Daniel shrugged, "We did earlier."

"What if there's more?" Derek challenged, "You gonna be so brave then?"

"Sure." Daniel shrugged, "Why not? I spent long enough keeping them at bay at Tenpenny Tower let alone Rivet City."

"Rivet City didn't exactly have a lot of problems with raiders, even later on." Derek muttered, "Besides you had the Brotherhood on your side."

"Yeah, if you really wanna call them helpful, I suppose we had help."

"More than anyone else ever had." Angelina quickly pointed out, "If nothing else they were good human shields. Resilient ones, too, with that power armor."

"If only they'd ever stuck around long enough to do even that. They usually fell back and protected their precious Project Purity."

"Whatever you say, man, until it got really bad there I'm sure them just sticking around was enough to scare people off."

"Yeah, I guess." Daniel grunted.

Derek nodded and went back to walking in relative silence. Whatever ended up happening he could deal with it, a death at the hands of his one time comrades would be horrible bu being killed by others for having been a raider would've been worse. Derek needed the caps as well, though he couldn't lie, he had tagged along to get out of Megaton and hopefully see some action; that didn't mean he was stupid enough to go against a group of raiders big enough to take on Tenpenny Tower and walk away from it.

Quite some time later the caravan was finally approaching its final destination for the first leg for their trip, Girdershade, which they could see in the distance under surprisingly still standing overpass. The small two peson settlement had done surprisingly well, even as isolated and vulnerable as it had been, becoming a relatively improtant trading post for those coming from out west or heading out that way. Everything looked normal from that distance, if nothing else they didn't hear any shooting and screaming; it was either untouched or the raiders from the tower had torn through Girdershade just as quickly. As they drew even closer they could see that it was apparently the latter, unfortunately, and for the first time Jones looked concerned.

"This isn't good."

"No shit." Derek snorted, "Let's see what the damage is."

"Stop!" Someone unseen shouted, "Don't move!"

"Oh great..." Derek sighed, looking around, "Are you blind? We're a caravan!"

"I said don't move asshole!"

"Fine." Derek sighed, looking up as he realized the voice was coming from the overpass, though now several armed people had shown up on ground level, "This isn't going to end well."

"Probably not." Angelina agreed, scanning the entire group, she had unslung her rifle and was carrying it now but knew not to try and shoot her way out of the situation.

"Who are you?" A young brunette approached, gun at the ready, two other guards on either side of her, "What're you doing?"

"We are a caravan," Jones gestured to everyone behind him, "As my companion oh so eloquently put it, I am Doc Jones."

"Jones?" The woman lowered her rifle slightly, "What're you carrying?"

"The agreed upon supplies, naturally." Jones smiled, "Everything you requested, at the agreed upon price."

"Alright... no one else knew..." She nodded, dropping her aggressive stance, "Sorry about that, we had some problems."

"Raiders?"

"Yeah - I assume that's what all that smoke on the horizon's about?"

"It is," Jones nodded solemnlly, "We came along it far too late, we didn't find any survivors."

"Shit." The woman frowned, looking down and away for a moment, letting her shoulders fall before looking back at the group, "No one? Damn it... that's going to cause some serious problems."

Jones nodded, "Yes, I imagine it would - we are here however. Shall we continue our business as arranged?"

The woman nodded, "Alright. You'll have to wait while we finish cleaning things up though."

"Alright." Jones nodded and lead the group into Girdershade proper.

After about an hour of sitting around Girdershade relaxing and waiting for things to settle down the group met with the woman they had been speaking with earlier, finding out her name was Nancy, and the raiders that had attacked Tenpenny Tower had apparently come from Cliffside Caverns and Evergreen Mills, at least two dead raiders from each encampment beign positively identified, hence their less than welcoming greeting. 

"Well then, I suppose we should've arrived earlier. Or perhaps later." Jones mused, looking across the table at Nancy, everyone else gathered around the room though they didn't sit with the two, "Either way, I'm sure you're still interested in what we have to offer."

"Yes." Nancy nodded, a grim looking coming over her face, "We need it now more than ever, we've been doing good but we still took some losses. Too many."

"I see." Jones nodded, falling silent for a moment as he pretended to sympathize, "I suppose then, as important as they are, you wouldn't mind negotiating."

"What? For what?" Nancy leaned back slightly, staring at him intensely, "We can't afford to not get those supplies, not with the way things are out here."

"And I have to get as much as I possibly can out of this."

"We could just wait and sell it to Tenpenny refugees, I'm sure someone made it out." Daniel mused, "Even Ghouls are greedy. They would've grabbed the money before running."

"Good point." Jones admitted, looking at him for a moment before directing his gaze back to Nancy, raising an eyebrow for a moment, "So then, what is it? You obviously need our help."

"Yes," Nancy sighed, "I know, I realize that, but we also need our money. It costs a lot to keep things going, expanding, growing."

"Hmm, then I suppose we have to find a compromise."

"I suppose so." Nancy nodded, sighing heavily again, "Alright... look, we'll take it all off your hands, whatever your price is now, if you stick around a bit. We could use some hired guns."

"Worried about the raiders?" Derek smirked.

"Yes, asshole." Nancy glared at him, "Very. They didn't do too much damage that wasn't cosmetic but they'll be back, they always are, this time I wouldn't be surprised if they came back sooner considering how badly we managed to beat them."

"Riding high after Tenpenny, I guess. Thought they were invinceable." Daniel shrugged, "If they come back I'm sure we'll wipe them out."

"Then let's hope they come back." Nancy said with clear determination, "The more we kill the better. One of these days we'll be powerful enough to march out there and kill them all."

"I'm sure plenty of people would help if you told them you were going to." Derek shrugged, "But I'm alright with that."

"Everyone else?" Jones looked around and everyone agreed with the idea, none of them strangers to such activities, and nodded as he looked back at Nancy, "Then it's decided. We stay."

Derek smirked, "Bet I'll tag more of 'em than any of you."

"Don't be so sure." Nancy stood from her seat across from Jones, "Our sniper you saw earlier's pretty good. Sit's up there in his own little camp, loves his job and hardly comes down."

Derek simply shrugged and walked outside with everyone else, the rest of Jones' caravan checking their weapons just as he did, getting ready for whatever came their way next.

"This is boring as hell." Derek mutterd for what felt like the thousandth time and likely was since they'd agreed to help stand guard for the rest of the day, Girdershade's leaders fearing the raiders might come back.

"Just shut up and keep an eye out." Angelina pulled a small, beat up flask from her gear and opened it, taking a sip, "And shoot straight this time."

"I shoot fine."

"Your ammo." Angelina shrugged, slowly emptying her flask over the next couple of minutes, savoring every last bit of whiskey.

Derek simply shrugged, watching for any movement in the distance. He and Angelina were sitting out on the north side of Girdershade, just under the overpass that gave the place its name. He'd felt it a bit useless to be covering an area the sniper above them - Andy - could've easily watched but as was pointed out to him when Derek started complaing Andy could only watch so much, being their only sniper, and he had to watch all directions to spot any threats as soon as possible. So there he was, bored and deciding that signing the contract to joing the caravan in Megaton had been a bad idea. He had wanted to get out of Megaton and get some action in his life again, instead he was sitting there looking for threats that may not ever show up, messing around with his revolver, spinning the cylinder back and forth, reminded of how he'd acquired it. It was the second time he'd thought of the event since joining the caravan, when he'd killed Lucy West. She had been carrying the revolver, which Derek took, not having acquired the rifle he now had just yet. If the raiders did come back he just hoped they didn't blow his cover, there were still plenty of people that would remember him.

Angelina on the other hand was more concerned with what might happen if the raiders came back and were successful in their attack, having experienced the horrors of a raider attack first hand, and then again several times after that after becoming a mercenary though ever since the first incident she had come out alive and had never been captured again. If it came to that, Angelina had decided, she would rather kill herself. Despite making that decision she never escaped the sick feeling that cropped up whenever she knew she might be dealing with raiders, a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, quickly suppressed and ignored whenever it showed up. Angelina just told herself it was an annoying survival instinct, though deep down inside she knew she was still scared by the idea of dealing with raiders, and likely always would be.

Derek eyed Angelina, who from behind with her shaved hair and combat armor looked rather masculine, shutting the cylinder on his revolver and putting it away. She'd gotten on his nerves but now he just wondered if she or anyone else was actually capable of standing up to the local raiders. There were plenty of new faces showing up and filling the ranks but Derek knew as chaotic as raider life was there were plenty of old, experienced killers, many of whom would give Rivet City security a run for their money. If they came back properly prepared and humbled by their defeat the first time Derek wasnt sure everyone else could hold their own.

"You alright?" Derek asked finally after studying her a little longer.

"What?" Angelina slowly turned to face him, rifle sitting beside her propped up against a support beam for the overpass.

"Are you ready? Didn't really think we'd run into anything this serious, but I have my doubts about everyone."

"Can't say I don't." Angelina admitted flatly, not in the least bit offended by Derek's comment, "But we have to rely on them to do their jobs. Unless you wanna be a coward and run."

"Yeah, right." Derek snorted, "I'm here for the action as much as the caps, I just don't wann have a fucking pile of bodies around me and have to deal with everyone myself."

"Awfully full of yourself." Angelina glanced over her shoulder, quickly sweeping the horizon before looking back at Derek, "Sure you could handle that?"

"Probably better than the rest of you." Derek shrugged, looking up at her, "But I'd rather not even have to try that."

"Same." Angelina shrugged and turned back around, grabbing her rifle instantly as she spotted something in the distance, "Andy! Incoming!"

"Shit." Andy rushed over to the opposite end of the overpass and peered through his scoped rifle, "Shit. There's tons of 'em!"

"Shit." Angelina cursed, looking at Derek as he got up, "Stay here, I'll be back."

"Whatever." Derek grabbed his rifle and got ready, dropping to a knee half behind the support beam Angelina's rifle had been leaning against as she took off, spotting a large group of raiders coming over a hill in the distance, "Oh _fuck_ me."

Andy from his perch high abot Derek took careful aim, resting his rifle on the railing of the overpass and pulled the trigger, putting a bullet through the chest of one raider and hitting another in the leg. Andy worked the bolt on his .308 hunting rifle and took aim again, quickly firing his next shot and missing, though the clumped together raiders allowed the stray round to smack someone else in the side of the head.

"Keep it up!" Derek shouted, watching as Andy started shooting, deciding to join in after a moment and let off a quick burst.

Derek's shots didn't manage to kill anyone though they did injure two raiders who simplyl got back up and kept running, Andy picking off one after only two limping steps. Derek let off a second burst this time every single round found their way to an unlucky raider's chest dropping her instantly.

"Where the _fuck_ did that bitch go?" Derek looked to either side then looked over his shoulder back at Girdershade proper, "Left me here all alone, she fucking left me."

Whether Angelina was coming back or not several Girdershade resident had shown up, weapons in hand, and joined Derek as bullets started impacting all around him including one right next to him spraying cement debris in his face. Derek lost panicked, lost his balance and fell over, scrambling behind the pillar he had been next to as one of the Girdershade residents went down with a bullet hole replacing their eye.

"Shit." Derek muttered, peering out from behind the pillar as another person was taken out by the now massive group of raiders, "Angelina!"

No one answered and he didn't see her back in town. Wherever she had gone he was the only member of the caravan present, the rest of Girdershade getting ready for the raiders to draw nearer. Derek swung out still in a crouch and started shooting wildly spraying the front row of the mass of raiders, reloading quickly as he got up to leave. Whever the rest of the caravan was that's where he needed to be, everyone in Girdershade was faring just as horribly as he had expected now that a truly full force attack was in motion, and Jones had his money - if he lived everyone else could die. He took off in a sprint, emptying his rifle as he went, reloading only once he was back in town.

"Jones! Danny! The hell are you?"

"Shut up! Quit yelling!" Daniel reached out and grabbed Derek as he was about to run by and pulled him over behind a building, "Shut up, what's going on?"

"They're about to over run the north side, there's too many of them, came back to find you guys. We gotta jet."

"Shit." Daniel looked at the ground for a moment, "Alright, I lost Jones and everyone else, one of the guys bit it. They're everywhere."

"_Shit_." Derek sighed, shifting his weight, "Any way out?"

"No." Daniel shook his head, "They're everywhere, if we go we'll have to shoot our way out."

"Great." Derek paused, "Let's just find Jones."

Daniel nodded, not bothered much as a stray round struck a woman in the throat as she ran by and started bleeding out a few feet away, "You good on ammo?"

"Yeah, I'm still good."

"Good, let's go." Daniel nodded and took off, Derek following close behind.

Derek soon found Daniel had been right, ducking and shooting wildly as they ran through Girdershade looking for the other members of their caravan, raiders trying to close in from all sides and several people had tried to break through the lines only to be savagely beaten, stabbed, shot and killed. Derek had been right, the attack earlier had been half hearted, probably too confident after their victory at Tenpenny Tower to succeed at Girdershade; now however it seemed everyone from Evergreen Mils to Cliffsie Caverns had shown up for the second attempt.

"Is there even anything valuable here?" Derek mused loudly, half directing his question to Daniel.

"All the caravans!" Daniel reminded him as he slid into cover behind a flimsy tent, reloading as he did so, "They're gonna rob 'em blind, is my guess."

"Makes sense." Derek nodded, ducking down as well, a couple of stray bullets tearing through the tent above them, "Let's just make sure there's one less caravan to rob."

"If we could find them-" Daniel suddenly stood, grabbing Derek and pulling him along for a second before taking off in a run, Derek following close behind, "Jones!"

"Daniel." Jones looked over at him, for the first time appearing shocked and confused, "Have you seen the others?"

"One of the guys bit it when they showed up," Derek informed him without the slightest bit of remorse, "Angelina ran back here to get you or some shit. Haven't seen her since."

"Damn." Jones looked away for a moment, thinking quickly, "We must find her and leave, there is no hope."

"That's what I was sayin', just before Angelina ditched me." Derek snapped, "The bitch left us to die."

"Perhaps, we will have to deal with that later." Jones offered, feeling much the same way, "We must make it out alive before we can worry about petty revenge."

"Fine whatever." Derek looked around, "Lead the way then."

Jones nodded and took off, his two companions following as close behind as possible, ducking and weaving whenever possible to avoid taking a stray round, running past a couple of buildings that had been set alight in the confused mess as they continued following Jones who now seemed unphased by the violent chaos around him. Derek and Daniel weren't all that affected either, neither of them caring much for what was going on, only concerned with how it affected them and their jobs. The group kept this up for the next minute until they literally ran into Angelina going in the opposite direction, knocking Jones flat onto his back and taking aim at the other two before they all realized who they had run into.

"Where were you?" Derek demanded, taking a step forward, "You ditched me."

"I was trying to find Jones, got lost in the mess." Angelina shot back, "You didn't hold the line."

"Not my town."

"You're going to get us all killed, you idiot!"

"Enough." Jones snapped though is expression had returned to its usual calm state, "We are going to leave. Now. Girdershade is lost."

"Fine, which way are we going?" Angelina looked around, pausing to take a shot at a lone raider that had rushed straight into Girdershade without being shot somehow, destroying his face in a cloud of blood.

"That way." Jones gestured to the man Angelina had just shot, "There are slightly less of them."

"Works for me." Angelina nodded.

Derek hesitated before grabbing his revolver and handing it over to Jones, "Better take this."

Jones took the revolver and studied it for a second before nodding at Derek, "Let's go."

Everyone nodded and started moving, though now much more slowly, as the raiders started closing in, throwing fire bombs as they went, igniting at least three buildings and two tents; several people had been trapped inside and their anguished screams could be heard over most of the other violence. Still the group kept moving, eventually pinned down near the south end of town, fighting off a small wave of raiders as they tried to break through into the town.

"Told you they were coming back." Derek muttered to himself as he reloaded, swinging around from behind cover to start shooting again, taking out a female raider as she beat a caravaneer to death.

"Looks like they're mostly coming from the north and east." Angelina observed loudly enough to be heard over all the gunfire and fighting going on around them, "We're in luck."

"Yes, it would seem so." Jones agreed with a curt nod, taking aim and putting a single round through a raider's chest, "Let's hope our luck holds out."

Everyone fell silent again except to let everyone else know they were reloading ast hey held the line, starting to repel the raiders, moving forward slightly every now and then, stepping over rows of bodies; some of those bodies were in fact the rest of their caravan, something Jones noted as he kept moving forward. Derek had started lagging behind slightly and as he started to jog after everyone a raider came around out of nowhere and literally ran into Derek, the two giong straight to the ground fighting over his rifle. The raider was at a disadvantage however as she fought one handed, trying to club Derek with hr piece of piping as they rolled around, eventually straddling him as he lay on his back, taking a light hit to the side of the head.

"Son of a bitch." Derek clenched his jaw and shoved his rifle into the woman's chest, pushing her back enough to give him time to swing the butt of his rifle at her face, rolling after he did using her lost balance to get out from under her.

Scrambling back to his feet Derek gripped his rifle tightly and fired off a quick burst at waist level, one bullet catching his attacker in the hip but she kept coming, swinging and nearly breaking Derek's off hand as she made contact. Derek dropped his rifle and reached for his knife as he backed away, his attack still coming at him unaffected by the round in her, the two met again and Derek raised his injured arm, taking a blow to his forearm as he stepp in and put his knife in the female raider's rib cage, quickly following it up with several more thrusts. The raider fell over, curling up in pain trying to protect herself but Derek straddled her much as she had him and kept stabbing her with as much energy as he could manage, finsihing her off with two deep stab wounds to the throat before he stood and sheathed his knife.

"Bitch." Derek muttered, kicking the corpse as he looked around his rifle, didn't find it and resorted to using his sawn off shotgun, carrying it one handed, his other hand still hurting.

Stuck ahead of Derek not having realized that they'd left him behind Angelina, Daniel, and Jones were fighting off a group of raiders. Derek caught up in time to completely obliterate the face of a charging raider, however, the knife wielding man going down in a growing pile of bodies.

"Almost there." Daniel observed, taking a quick look around, "Run for it?"

"We have to." Angelina agreed, emptying her rifle into the last few visible raiders, reloading quickly as she stood and started to run.

Everyone followed her lead and somehow, either by luck or skill, managed to get clear of Girdershade and keep going. It was only then, running along behind Jones that Derek realized he was wearing a backpack that seemed to be filled to the brim with something or other. Derek didn't bother saying anything just yet, still too busy running from the all too close fighting, stray bullets flying wildly by.

"Where to now?" Derek panted as they finally found themselves far enough to stop and rest, looking back at the battle.

"Canterbury." Jones said evenly, adjusting the backpack he had been carrying, "If anyone else made it out they'll have to meet us there."

"Works for me." Angelina shrugged. turning to start heading back east, careful to watch the battle in the distance as she kept moving.

"This went about as well expected, huh?" Derek chuckled, "We eveng etting anyting out of this?"

"Indeed we did." Jones allowed himself a smile as he looked at Derek, motioning to the backpack he had, "Payment was made up front."

"At least something went right." Angelina mused.

Though she didn't like the idea of leaving Girdershade to burn, she hadn't after all left Derek so she could find Jones and run away, but rather to know where he was and keep him safe, and fight off the raiders as they had agreed. It wasn't a moral objection so much as a professional one as Angelina preferred not to go back on deals. It never ended well but Girdershade was well and truly lost and any sort of retreat was wiser than making a stand.

"Any idea our which way we're taking?"

"Yes," Jones nodded, gesturing to the landscape ahead of them in general, having taken the lead once again, "We're headed south first. Then we'll travel along the outskirts of downtown, follow it up and split off toward Megaton."

"I thought we were heading straight back?"

Jones shook his head vigorously, "No, no, I don't trust the path to be safe anymore."

"Works for me." Angelina shrugged, not minding the extra time spent getting back, so long as they got there, "You have this planned?"

"I like to be prepared." Jones nodded quickly, keeping up his steady pace, "It's how I got this far."

"Yeah, I can see that." Angelina nodded, keeping pace with Jones easily, pausing for a moment before adding, "Think anyone else made it?"

"Someone bit it with me when the raiders first showed up." Derek spoke up, "That's one down."

"Two were killed with me." Daniel added, "Saw the rest on our way out. They're dead."

"You are sure?"

"Sure as can be," Daniel nodded, "Beaten, bloody, and dead."

"Guess that solves that problem." Derek shrugged, "More for us."

"Always good." Angelina quickly agreed with a nod, looking around again, "Could do with some extra caps myself."

"Yeah." Daniel nodded, rather pleased with how things had turned out despite what had just happened, "So long as we make it outta this, I can't say I'm too upset about all that. No offense, Jones."

"None taken, I'll be able to recover my losses and still make a nice profit." Jones smirked, pausing before he added, "Perhaps we should have stayed though."

"No way, we agreed to help defend the place, we did. They were coming full force, no way we could've stopped them if we stayed." Derek shook his head, quick to shoot down the idea, "Even with a coupla doses of anger juice apiece we would've been no match."

"Perhaps." Jones nodded after a moment, starting to slow down as they put a good distance between them and Girdershade, "I would've rather had things go much more smoothly, but what is done is done."

"Fair enough." Derek shrugged, glancing over his shoulder, "Don't think we'll be making any return visits after this is all done and over with."

"It'll cause problems, yes." Jones nodded again, checking to make sure the revolver Derek had given him was still loaded, "But with the way things are going there will be another trading post set up. There's too many caps to be had, there'll be another Girdershade."

"If you say so." Derek shrugged.

"Canterbury'll probably fund it." Angelina observed, agreeing with Jones, "They're the ones benefitting from all of this the most."

"Yes, exactly, and with the way things've been going that won't cost them much. I may even be able to convince them to replace my lost caravan, but that's another matter."

"Good luck with that, they never struck me as the considerate types."

"They aren't, but I'm not one of the low level caravans." Jones smirked, "You don't get this far without planning things out and preparing for the worst."

"Very true." Angelina agreed, knowing exactly what he meant, it had been what had kept her alive all that time as a mercenary, "Let's just get back in one piece."

"Keep doing your job so well and we will. I knew I picked the right people for this."

The group fell silent once more as they continued moving south, still careful to make sure no one was following them, deciding to take another route back to Megaton and to rest there before moving on to Canterbury Commons. Before that however they would be making another stop to wait out the night and give the raiders time to get beaten back by Girdershade residents or to wipe everyone out and head back home - either way they would stay at the Dunwich building and see how things played out, laying low until they knew the area was safe. The isolated, out of the way and completely out of use building had been the subject of many rumors but none had ever been proven true or even credible. Whatever history the building had and the stories surrounding it, it would be their home for the night.

"Almost there now." Jones observed, watching the rapidly approaching building.

"Creepy as hell." Daniel murmured, following close behind everyone else, eyeing the building in the distance.

"C'mon, a little old building scares you?" Derek snorted, holding in a laugh, "No wonder I found you hiding back there."

"Fuck you, I was staying alive. There's a difference."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself, just don't get in the way when something else goes down."

"You two just might end up fighting each other before then." Jones shook his head, "Try and play nice until we make it back."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Derek mumbled, glaring at Daniel for a moment before directing his gaze back in front of him.

The group arrived at the building roughly an hour later and headed inside cautiously, not knowing what may be inside - possibly more raiders. They were common enough in the area to have possibly spread out and started other less populated, well known camps. The Dunwich building easily could have been one of them, even a rather large one, but as Angelina took the lead and swept the room with her assault rifle and kept moving further into the building she didn't find any signs of recent activity.

"Looks all clear... building's pretty big though." Angelina commented, keeping her rifle at down-ready, "It'll take a while to clear."

"Then I suppose you all should get started, I'll watch the entrance." Jones offered, gesturing for Derek to give him more ammo.

"All I brought for it." Derek handed it over and followed his other two companions further into the building.

The trio set about clearing the rest of the Dunwich building, or as much of it as they could, finding an area or two was blocked by collapsed roofs or locked doors they didn't bother to unlock. If they didn't hear anything on the other side - and they never did - they just kept moving. The further they ventured however, the more unnerved Daniel became, slowly at first until he felt out right uncomfortable. Things had already been severely messed up by the day's events, Tenpenny Tower was something they could recover from, Girdershade not so much; he could simply kill them all and make it back on his own, or disappear again. It wouldn't have been the first time Daniel had to cut and run, Rivet City, Tenpenny Tower, many other jobs that had gone to hell. It was simply the easiest way to handle things, he had done it before and knew he could make it back on his own - staying with them might just get him killed like it nearly had in Girdershade.

Derek himself was going through a very similar thought process as they continued sweeping the building room by room. It might have been even easier for him to jump to such a conclusion and actualyl carry it out considering his background. He had survived as long as he had by being violent and back stabbibg and being quicker to use treacherous violence than others around him. Even back then Derek had allies however, even if he couldn't truly trust them, and now he had only the people he had just met the other day. It would be far too easy to kill them al and make a run for it never to look back, Derek was already risking a horrible death at the hands of angry wastelanders for having been a raider, adding a couple more people to his body count would hardly matter.

"This place is empty." Derek kicked an empty Nuka Cola bottle sending it flying across the room before it hit a wall and stopped, "Let's just go back."

"You go." Angelina didn't bother to shake her head, still keeping her rifle at teh ready, "I'd rather not get my throat slit in the middle of the night."

"I can take care of that now if you want." Derek gestured to the knife on his belt, "Been a while since I hacked anyone's head off."

Angelina's face went entirely expressionless as she turned and took a step toward Derek, "What?"

"You heard me." Derek shrugged, "What, you've never gone at it with someone?"

"Plenty of times, that's just over the top. Completely unnecessary, pretty unprofessional."

"Yeah, whatever." Derek snroted, shrugging, "Good thing I'm not a professional then, huh?"

"No, you're a useless Megaton bum. Crawl back to your shit hole and let us handle things properly."

"Fuck you, I wasn't the one running off to 'find' anyone."

"Whatever, this isn't worth my time. Let's head back."

"That's what I said."

"It's a stupid idea when you say it." Angelina slung her rifle over he shoulder and started back to where Jones was on the first floor, waiting for them to return, "Because you don't know what you're talking about."

"And what makes you so fucking qualified?" Derek challenged,

"None of your business, that's what, you just need to know I am. Which, if you weren't so inept," Angelina turned around and approached Derek again, "You would realize."

"Play nice you two." Daniel smirked, shaking his head, "Jones wouldn't like this very much."

"Yeah, I guess not." Derek muttered, "Let's go."

The group started tracing their way through the building back to Jones, slowly, still careful not to let their guard down. They had checked as much of the building as they could but just like in downtown you could think you were alone one minute and literally bump into someone around the corner the next. Angelina didn't know how long it would end up taking them to get back to Canterbury but the sooner they got there the better; if it took much longer than they had planned she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't just shoot Derek. It sounded like a great idea even then and there though doing so would leave Angelina without any caps though once things went that far she could always just kill Jones and Daniel as well and make off with all the money. It wasn't a particularly appealing idea but Angelina didn't shy away from it all that much she simply preferred to keep her facade of proessionalism; professionalism that meant always finishing her jobs and not much else, anyone that got in the way was dealt with often violently, her jobs weren't much better than her methods often involving violence of varying degrees and extremely gray morality.

"You sure this was the way?" Derek asked after a moment.

"It all looks the same, how would you know?" Daniel challenged, taking a look around the spacious room they now found themselves in.

"Because I'm not an idiot."

"Sure had me fooleed." Angelina snorted, stopping in the middle of the room and turning to face her companions, "But if you're so sure you can take the lead."

"Think I wi-"

"No." Daniel cut him off quickly, "You're not leading us anywhere. We'll get back just fine. Building's only so big."

"Fine."

Angelina turned and started leading the group again completely ignoring what Derek had said, knowing she wash eaded the right way. She had nearly been turned around in the large, seemingly endless building filled with similar rooms but she had spent enough time in the ruins of downtown to know how to navigate any ruined building. Eventually they were almost back to where they had started when they suddenly heard hushed voices in the next room over and the entire group stopped dead in their tracks.

"_No_, not yet. You will stay, and you will listen, this is _my_ plan. You will not ruin it."

"Shit... alright, just don't go getting cold feet. The guys back at Canterbury only backed up your little plan because they thought it'd work. You know what'll happen if it doesn't."

"Shit." Derek mumured, "This is some conspiracy shit..."

"Shut. Up." Angelina glared at him, but it was too late.

"What the hell was that?"

"Fuck." Angelina brought up her rifle as she backed away from the door way and let off a burst before anyone even came into sight, "Go!"

Derek didn't have to be told twice as he turned around and ran for the door they had just come through, shotgun in hand, though he left Angelina to deal with anyone who followed them for the moment. Daniel fired off a few rounds before turning and doing the same, Angelina not too far behind, the first men coming into the room just as they were leaving it. Whoever was following them quickly started shooting back as they chased the group to the next room, proving they were much more well armed, and there were many more of them, as several of them nearly hit Angelina before she dsiappeared into the next room.

"Keep going!" Angelina shotued as Derek reached the far end of the room, "For fuck's sake keep moving!"

As soon as Angelina had uttered those words one of the men chasing them took aim and let off a quick burst, one of the rounds catching her under her left shoulder blade. Angelina grunted as she stumbled, clenched her teeth and kept running as everyone else caught up and started shooting as well.

"You alright?" Daniel grabbed Angelina nad pulled her out of the doorway as she caught up with him and Derek.

"I'll be alright." Angelina managed through her clenched teeth, blood pouring down her back, staining her outfit dark red, "You?"

"Didn't get hit."

"Good enough. We can't keep running." A bullet passed through the wall next to Angelina's head barely prompting a response, "Have to pick them off."

"We'll find a better place to ambush 'em," Derek spoke up, "Come on, this room's too small."

"Yeah." Angelina nodded, gripping her rifle tightly as she blindly fired back at the men that were still shooting wildly at them as she began back pedaling.

Daniel fired off a couple shots of his own as he started to follow Derek down a broken section of the floor that had collapsed into the next room which was largelly barren and ruined just like the rest of the building.

"Go." Daniel stopped as he stepped around behind the fallen section of the floor, motioning for the other two to keep moving without him, "I'll be right there."

"Suit yourself." Derek shrugged and ducked into the next hallway and kept running with Angelina, looking for a suitable place to ambush the group.

Once Angelina and Derek were out of sight Daniel hurried out of the room and across the hall to the first room he found, shutting the doro behind him. He wasn't going to hang back and try to stall the group. They weren't worth it to him. Jones had betrayed them and all Daniel was concerned with was getting to him, getting his caps and getting out of there alive. Derek and Angelina could keep everyone else busy and die for all he cared, though he would eventually make sure everyone present would die, Daniel had clearly made a mistake all that time ago when he'd killed Doc Hoff and let Jones live. That was then and he had walked away once, likely having been the one to hire him and his partners to attack the convoy in the first place just like now, but Jones wouldn't be walking away a second tiime.

"What the hell happened?" Derek glanced over his shoulder, looking passed Angelina as he entered another room, not seeing anyone behind them as he stopped to catch his breath, "Fucker said he'd be right behind us."

"They might've caught him."

"No shooting? None at all? I doubt it. Rat bastard booked it."

"Might've." Angelina admitted, a pained look on her face as she panted, "We won't be getitng away so easily. I can hear them already."

"You good to fight?"

"Yeah." Angelina nodded, looking at Derek, "You?"

Derek simply nodded and the two took up positions watching the door they had used to enter the room as the sounds of the group chasing them drew closer. They still didn't know how many there were but they would soon find out and hoped it wouldn't be more than they could handle. Derek considered simply shooting Angelina who was already wounded and leaving her as Daniel had done to both of them, but hesitated, and eventually pushed the thought out of his mind as it only served to distract him as the group drew closer. Angelina on the other hand was almost entirely focused on the doorway, resting against the large chunk of debris she had hid behind, keeping rifle rifle steadily aimed at chest height. She glanced in Derek's direction without turning her head a few times but remained largely focused on the matter at hand. Whatever had happeneed, whoever was responsible, she wasn't going to die there, everyone else would though.

"In here."

"Go."

The first man rushed into the room and was gunned down by Angelina before he could even spot her or Derek, his momentum carrying him as his legs gave out and he went tumnling across the floor. The next man in line was a bit luckier as Angelina quickly adjusted her aim, only firing once he got a single, wide shot off - Derek caught him in the side of the head with his first shot as well adn down he went in a bloody clump of flesh and armor.

"Shit shit shit." No one else entered the room allowing Derek enough time to replace his spent round.

Angelina kept her teeth clenched, angrily staring at the door, ffeeling warm blood flowing down her back too freely for comfort as she kept watch. She didn't know how many more of them there were but if they were foolish enough to be gunned down that easily she reasoned they wouldn't pose too much of a threat beyond their numbers.

"Drop your guns and I might let you live!" Angelina called out, panting, "Better than ending up like your friends here!"

No reply. Angelina could barely make out the sonds of several people shuffling around trying to find a way to flank them, remaining out of sight.

"You good?" Angelina's eyes shot to Derek then back at the door.

"Just fine. You?"

"Yeah." Angelina nodded, still breathing heavily, "I'm fine."

"If you say so." Derek shrugged and kept his shotgun trained on the door, if anyone else came in they would likely go down just as quickly.

The one thing they hadn't expected however was that the group was much more well equipped than most and weren't planning on coming in through the door. The explosives they'd planted on the wall on either side of the door detonated and blew large holes right through them as if they weren't there at all. Derek fell over confused and screaming expletives at the top of his lungs, firing wildly at the hole in the wall, as did Angelina who was slightly closer to her wall and was thrown to the floor a bit more violently. The group rushed into the room, none of them injured as their targets fell over and started shooting blindly, and quickly stated beating them severely as the two were disarmed.

"C'mon, let's get 'em back to Jones." One of the men commaned, kicking Angelina in her stomach as she was pulled up onto her knees, hands tied behind her back, "See if he still wants to get rid of these fuckers."

Protesting and struggling as much as possible the two were dragged through the building back toward the front door, Angelina causing enough of a problem that two men had to grab her legs and carry her from behind instead of leading her around, the same eventually being done for Derek. Carried back struggling as much as they could manage to - which wasn't very much at all - Derek and Angelina were more properly restrained and left on their knees where Jones was now waiting for them.

"Ah, wonderful, glad to see you two could join us once again." Jones forced a smile, gesturing to Daniel beside him, "Daniel here was kind enough to give you up. It seems we have some historyI wasn't aware of."

"Do we really need to do thise whole speech thing? Can't we just shoot 'em?"

"I suppose." Jones shrugged, glancing from Daniel to Derek and Angelina, "Just thought they deserved an expanation. Deserve at least that much for all their help."

"Fuck off." Derek mumbled through all the blood flowing from his lips, glaring at Jones.

"I'd rather not, not just yet." Jones tooka step or two toward his captives, "But first I think I'll indulge a little, I don't get many opportunities to brag. Most of this has to be kept a secret, after all."

"Yeah? What exactly is 'this'?" Angelina looked up at Jones, her face in just as bad of condition as Derek's, still bleeding from herr back wound as well, "Stealing all of the money and losing your caravan, that's some sorta plan?"

Jones sighed heavily, crouching so that they were eye level, "I never learn to stop expecting people to understand. I always overestimate the abilities of others, I suppose. No, you see, it starts before losing the caravan and stealing all these caps."

"Well don't let me stop you." Angelina felt the barrel of the gun kept to the back of her head brush against her lightly, "Sounds like a good story."

"Well now, it all starts several years ago. As you know, I used to work with Doc Hoff. Things went well enough, but my mentor had no clue just how expansive and profitable his business could be. I saw that potential. So I killed him and took over, as it just so happens Daniel here was one of the men that I'd hired to attack the caravan, I 'escaped' and hunted them all down. Except for Daniel. Turns out that was a stroke of wonderful luck. Since then I've been doing all I can to get over on everyone else, slowly but surely building my empire across this whole wretched wasteland."

"What about Canterbury?" Angelina tried to hide her pain as she winced, speaking starting to hurt, he gun shot wound still more than painful, and her fresher wounds were starting to prove difficult to handle as well, "They said something about someone in Canterbury."

"I'm glad you asked." Jones smirked, "You see, Angelina, as skilled as I am I simply can not pull this off on my own. That is why these men are here. Some of them are from Canterbury, some of them are raiders paid off to assist us in this little plan."

Jones pause for a moment, entirely for dramatic effect, "But as for the men in Canterbury, they are simply local investors. A caravan doesn't simply become successful by being good at what it does. You need someone backing you. These men are my investors. They provide the money, I provide the plans, these men here help carry it out."

"Sounds like something I wouldn't mind getting in on." Derek chuckled for a second, stopping when the pain his wounds caused him flared up, "Guess it's too late for that."

"Afraid so." Jones stood up and produced the revolver Derek had given him, "It really is too bad, your friends in Evergreen Mills told me great things about you."

"You're a fucking _raider_?" Angelina's face contorted in pure rage, spitting blood on Derek, "You son of a bitch!"

"My my, it seems she's ready to kill you for us. How forgetful of me, I didn't even tell you about each other's history, did I? You see, Derek here, he used to be a raider before having a sudden change of heart and deciding he as better off sitting around Megaton all day. And, Derek, Angelina here has had a very bad personal experience with raiders."

Jones slowly stood back up, "Of course, that doesn't mean much now."

With that he quickly raised Derek's revolver and shot three of his men, two in the head, killing them instantly as the forty four round completely wrecked what little of a brain the raiders had and splattered it all over the nearby wall. The third man was not so lucky and had taken his round to the throat and rolled around gasping for air and coughing up blood for a moment beside Angelina before he stoppeed moving completely.

"Can't have too many people knowing about this, huh?" Derek muttered

"No one outside of Canterbury at any rate." Jones agreed, "Too bad, too. Could've used them some other time."

"Could've." Derek agreed.

As Jones swung the revolver to shoot Derek he got to his feet suddenly and lunged at Jones, knife in hand, taking a forty four to the lower abdomen as he plunged the knife into Jones' rib cage and they fell to the floor wrestling with each other. Angelina stood and backed up into the man behind her slamming him against the wall before throwing her head back into his nose,letting him slide to the floor in pain as she tackled the other gunman, hands still behind her back. Daniel, unable to react without possibly shooting his own men, charged Derek and kicked him off of Jones - earning a knife through his shin for his effort.

"Asshole." Derek forced himself up onto his feet and tackled Daniel who dropped his gun and began wrestling with Derek, fighting for control of the knife he still held, literally soaked in his own blood.

Somehow managing to get her hands untied as she knocked down the last man Angelina forced herself up to her feet despite her several wounds of varying severity and brought her booted foot down on his head as he tried to get up, not stopping at the first blow, knocking him out with three more. During all of this Jones grabbed his side, having dropped the revolver, and began struggling to drag himself toward the door and started to stand as he braced himself against the wall. Angelina hadn't noticed, far too busy with going back to the other man she'd attacked who was now grabbing his gun with one hand, holding his bleeding, broken nose with the other.

"Stay. Down." Angelina kicked the side of the man's knee dropping him to the floor agian, punching him in his broke nose as soon as he went down and continuing to pummel him until he stopped fighting back.

By this time Jones had regained his senses and, one hand still holding his bleeding wound, retrieved a small .45 pistol he'd taken to carrying. Angelina turned in time to take three rounds to her amor knocking her flat on her back, groaning in pain as Jones turned and stumbled out of the building. Derek and Daniel were still struggling over the knife, Daniel now on top of Derek and starting to take control of the situation, Derek's gun shot wound paining him too much to fight effectively. Angelina rolled over and forced herself back to her feet slowly, noting that none of Jones' shot had pierced her armor before stumbling over to Daniel and kicking him off of Derek; she didn't bother sticking around to see what happened as she turned and headed for the door, throwing it open and following Jones as he stumbled away from the building leaving a large trail of blood.

"Come back here you fucker." Angelina grunted, every step painful and labored, the gun shot wound in her back sending out endless waves of agony as she chased after Jones at a rather slow pace.

"You should just stay dead." Jones groaned, almost doubling over in pain as he turned around and barely managed to raise his pistol, wildly firing off two shots that both missed by a mile, "You... you don't have much at all to live for, anymore."

"Fu- fuck you!" Angelina panted as she stumbled along after Jones, intent on wrapping her hands around his neck and watch the life slowly fade from his eyes as he died a satisfyingly slow and painful death.

Jones didn't reply as he simply kept running or rather kept stumbling along in the most agonizing pain he'd ever experienced in his entire life. He could hardly shoot straight and would've been amazed that he hit Angelina at all had he not been far too busy worrying about bleeding out or being caught before that could occure. Jones had known who he was dealing with, knew they were more than capable of doing what he needed done, all his careful planning had been ruined all by two people. He wouldn't allow it. Jones had never failed before and refused to now. Gritting his teeth, hand at his side absolutely soaked in blood, Jones reached around and emptied his pistol wildly in Angelina's direction without stopping nor did he stop to reload as he kept running from Angelina who started closing in as Jones found himself much more fatigued before her.

While the two of them were playing cat and mouse Derek and Daniel were still struggling to see who would make it out of the Dunwich building alive, the weakened Derek struggling to keep Daniel from carving him up with his own knife.

"Get up you useless bastards and help me kill this little shit." Daniel looked off to the side at the two incapacitated men Jones had left behind, fighting to force Derek's knife into his throat.

It was that second of distraction that cost Daniel as Derek grabbed a nearby Nuka Cola bottle by the neck and brought it against the side of his head, completely catching Daniel off guard. Derek struck the stunned traitor again and rolled over tossing him to the floor, pinning his hand with the knife to the floor and striking him twice more before he slowly got to his feet and sumbled over to Daniel's 10mm. Before Daniel could regain his senses and get back to his feet again Derek had executed his partners. Derek turned to finish off Daniel as well but the injured man was already up on his feet and coming right for him; they both grabbed each other's wrist and fought to keep the other from using their weapon. Despite the pain from his wound Derek managed to bring his knee up into Daniel's stomach and pushed him over onto the ground, regaining his knife.

"So long, asshole." Derek went to shoot Daniel only to find the gun had two rounds left which struck Daniel in the stomach.

Watching Daniel curl up and start groaning in pain, rolling around on the floor as a pool of his bown blood started to form Derek couldn't help but go in for the killing blow. Waiting around to watch him bleed out would take far too long, though the pain caused by such a death would be extremely satisfying, and he couldn't simply leave Daniel there to possibly survive. Derk sheathed his knife and strode over to Daniel, straddling the injured man who barely managed to fight back as Daniel began pummeling him with strikes to the face, neck and chest, quickly becoming winded and pained due to his fresh wound but continuing without any thought for whatever damage he might end up doing to himself. The sound of his fist meeting Daniel's face and his head bouncing off the floor was sickly satisfying in the most brutally primal way; Derek grabbed Daniel's head and started simply slamming it against the floor watching as he started to bleed, his eyes going blank, nearly knocked out and unaware of what was going on. Derek barely restrained himself, panting as he finally stopped and sat atop Daniel, the two men bleeding all over themselves and each other.

"Shouldn't have sided with the Doc." Derek wheezed, "Glad you did though. Wanted to do this as soon as I met you."

Derek drew his combat knife once more and thrust it into Daniel's neck several times before slowly getting to his feet and sheathing the weapon again.

"Shit." Derek looked around, dropping Daniel's gun and looking around, "Where'd they go now?"

Derek gritted his teeth as he bent over to retrieve his sawn off shotgun and headed out the door, barely able to walk, blood already starting to cover his hand as he kept pressure on his wound. It wasn't the first time Derek had been shot but it always hurt no matter what any wannabe tough guy had to say about it, and being shot with his own gun wounded his pride as well. Stumbling out into the bright sunlight Derek squinted and took a look around, spotting what had to have been Angelina and Jones in the distance to the north east; he quickly decided that was where he wanted to go as well. He could wrap things up with the deaths of Jones and Angelina - what he would do then Derek couldn't be bothered contemplating at the moment.

As Derek slowly started trying to catch up Angelina found herself stumbling and falling to her knees, unable to stay up right. She started crawling after Jones, reaching out to grab him thoug he was too far, but simply could not keep going. She'd been shot, beaten senseless, and shot a few more times; none of the last three shots had penetrated her armor but it hurt more than most would think. As Angelina kept crawling along evnetually she found herself crawling, draging herself across the ground until Jones started putting distance between them as he kept stumbling along.

"Son of a bitch." Angelina manged as she finally let her head hit the ground, almost unable to move.

Not long after Jones disappeared from her sight Derek came stumbling along, hesitating as he reached Angelina, unsure if he should just shoot her or help her up and use her to get to Jones.

"You look like shit." Derek grunted, holding his wound with his free hand still, "You gonna let him get away that easily."

"You don't look so good yourself." Angelina rolled over, pulling a push dagger from her boot, refusing to be unarmed around Derek, "But if you insist on being an ass about it go catch up wih him."

"Yeah, whatever." Derek held out his hand, "And have to explain everything on my own? I don't think so."

"Whatever." Angelina groaned as she ignored Derek and forced herself to stand up on her own, wobbling as she got back to her feet, "Lead the way. You've got the gun and all."

Derek eyed Angelina for a moment, neither of them willing to turn their back on the other but unable to accurately gauge whether or not an attack would be successful. They both knew every second wasted was another second Jones used to get further and further away. Neither of them moved still, unwilling to break the stalemate.

"Well?" Derek croaked.

"Let's go." Angelina barely managed to gesture for Derek to take the lead.

Derek hesitantly took the lead deciding he could take Angelina if anything happened and that he needed her for the time being though he wasn't sure either of them would make it very far in their current state. Whatever was to become of them Derek kept going, moving as quickly as he could, Angelina stumbling along behind him ready to fall over at any moment. She had to keep moving however and somehow found the ability to do so though she grew pale and felt like her insides were being torn apart. Jones was going to die and then Derek likely would as well and then Angelina might let herself die, but only then.

"There." Angelina barely managed to speaking, spotting Jones in the distance, slumped against a rock, apparently still alive and kicking, "There..."

"Yeah I seem 'im." Derek nodded, almost out of breath himself, blood starting to cover his entire lower half, "Gotta get closer."

Angeilna didn't answer, unsure if she even could if she wanted to, and simply kept walking. Jones had his side to them and was apparently unaware of the approaching pair of vengeful caravaneers; caught up in the new and totally overwhelming sensation of being stabbed Jones was in his own world, eyes closed, rolling his head all over, trying to keep pressure on his wound. Jones had never failed to do what he'd set out to do which was also a new sensation, one that cut deeply into his sizeable ego, made all that much worse by the fact that this had been his biggest plan to date. It had all been ruined by a filthy raider and a vengeful mercenary, two worthless wasteland wanderers that had no right to interfer with his take over; no right to stop him from building his mercantile empire across the wasteland. Jones had definitely never felt remorse over what he had done, it had always been purely personal, but at the same time if he had succeded it would've benefited the entire area in ways these two could never imagine, his absolute control over local trade wouldn't change that. Someone had to be in control and Jones had never met a man more fit for the job than himself. Jones wouldn't let those two worthless vermin ruin his plans, he would make it back to Canterbury and have them killed; his conspirators would know the truth but everyone else would be told it had been Derek and Angelina who had destroyed the caravan and they would both be killed.

"Almost there." Derek grunted, starting to barely lift his feet as he kept shuffling along, drawing closer to the barely concious Jones, trying to decide whether he wanted to stab him a few dozen times or simply mangle his head with his shotgun.

Finally after what had literally seemed like an eternity the wounded pair reached Doc Jones who barely noticed them, lifting his head after a moment an opening his eyes, staring up at them. After a moment of perfect silence Angelina lunged forward knocking Jones over and sitting on top of him as she started swinging, punching him with one hand as the push dagger in her other hand pierced his throat, face and upper chest with every other blow. Derek joined in after a moment, starting to kick Jones whenever he had an opening, even striking him across the head with his shotgun a few times. By the time the assault was over Jones lay bleeding all over himself either dead or extremely close to it, bruises and deep puncture wounds all over. As Angelina slowly got off of him Derek leaned forward and pressed his gun against Jones' head, pulled the trigger and destroyed most of his head.

"That's over with." Derek swayed where he stood, turning to face Angelin as he regained his balance.

Angelina simply clenched her teeth and swung at Derek who barely had a chance to back pedal and shoot Angelina in her leg before she planted her knife in his throat and they both fell over tumbling over each other once or twice before coming to a rest next to each other. Derek choked on his blood, hands around his throat, blood soaking his shirt as it poured out in steady streams. Angelina barely managed to, from her prone position, turn her head to face Derek and watch the pained expression on his face as he barely managed to squirm around in pain, staring up at the sky as he quickly bled to death. With Derek now dead Angelina found herself unable to move, having been shot in her left leg which was now mangled beyond belief though she couldn't tell quite how bad the damage was just yet. Angelina couldn't tell very much as she lay there in the most intense pain she had experienced in a while. Jones, Derek and everyone else were all dead. If she died along with them she wouldn't mind. The caravan's journey was over; if her miserable life in the wasteland was over as well that would be just fine.

Angelina slowly came to in a fatigue and chem induced haze, completely disoriented and unsure of what had happened or where she was - it certainly wasn't where she had been, that much she eventually determined after a few foggy moments.

"She's awake." Someone Angelina could barely make out stood and approached the bed she was layingi n, "Almost didn't think she'd snap out of it."

"She almost didn't, we barely got there in time." Someone else spoke, appearing at the person's side, "And she's lucky we had the supplies to help here. THings haven't been going too well."

"Yeah well it's not like we could've just left here there now is it?"

"You're right, I know, it's just hard to keep up with our own problems. Esepcially since everything went to hell. We should've never come out here."

"Alright," The woman sighed, shaking her head as she looked back at Angelina, "Either way she's doing better."

"Yeah..." The woman stared at Angelina for a moment, "Try and relax, don't try talking before you're ready - and don't worry about how you feel. That's just the chems. Had to dose you up to the eyeballs."

"Y-yeah..." Angelina croaked, her voice low and hoars, starting to recognize the all too familiar feeling of Med-X, warm and calming, perfectly content to just lay there all day doing nothing at all.

The woman smiled and nodded, "We'll be right here, just in case you need something, when you feel better."

Angelina watched as the man and woman stepped back off to where they had been to one side of the room and went back to work; it was then that she took a look around herself and Angelina realized she was in some sort of infirmary and it looked like it was in a pretty well taken care of building - it looked almost brand new. It had to have been a military installation before the war she reasoned through the fog of her chem induced stupor, one that had been taken care of very well since then to boot. Whoever these people were they were likely well equipped and knowledgeable. Several minutes later, however, as she kept pondering all the thoughts swimming around her head, Angelina fell asleep again.

It was an hour before Angelina woke again and found she was still in the same room and with the same two unknown people dressed in what had become as wasteland doctor fatigues. Whoever they were she certainly owed them her life but Angelina still couldn't quite think straight enough to worry about that.

"Feeling any bed?" The woman stood beside Angelina, smiling slightly as she looked down at her patient.

"Yeah." Angelina managed after a moment, staring up at the woman, "A little."

"Well, good." She smiled a bit more, "I'm glad. Jim, she's talking now."

"What? Great." The man stood from his seat at a desk and turned to join them, "Good. thought it'd take a little longer, you're doing great."

"How long since?"

"Only two days." The man shook his head, "You were out for most of the first."

Angelina slowly nodded, eyeing both of them, asking slowly, "Where are we?"

"Somewhere safe." The man reassured her with an ever so slight smile, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"_Where_?" Angelina demanded, weakly balling her fists, "Are we?"

"if you're going to be like that I won't tell you at all then." The man shrugged, his face going completely blank, "We'll just let you out when you're ready and lock the door."

"Fine." Angelina muttered, still clenching her fists as tightly as she could manage, her face remaining oddly calm, still dosed up to the eyeballs on Med-X.

The woman shook her head, "Jim's just a hot head, ignore him. We've been pretty stressed out lately. Things haven't been going so well around here for us, we... we came out here with a few other people."

"Don't tell her that!" Jim snapped, "Who knows who she is?"

"Fine, we don't know that, but what does it matter? It's not like telling her anything could hurt after bringing her here. And it's not like that was wrong either. Everyone else is gone but that doesn't mean we don't have work to do."

"Yeah, I suppose."Jim shrugged, still looking rather angry, "We should just go back. It'll take us forever to do this with just two of us."

"We can't now, we have to stay until she gets better."

"Whatever." Jim sighed, "Alright, but only until then. We need to go back and regroup. Find someone else to help us."

"With what?" Angelina croaked, her voice still low, raspy and a bit weak.

The woman hesitated, looking at her partner then back at Angelina, "We've been doing some research around the wasteland. Mostly stuff related to Project Purity and similar interests... that's where we are - the old purifier."

"Fixing it?"s

"No," The woman shook her head quickly, "No, not quite... mostly research, trying to figure out where it went wrong. Checking on some other things as well."

"At least we were 'til our team got wiped out." Jim interrupted, still looking rather angry, "No reason at all. Fucking riots in Rivet City again."

"Again?" Angelina shook her head slowly, "Why?"

"Who knows, the Brotherhood's leaving, retreating and abandoning any efforts that weren't paying off. Rivet City was nothing to them, they couldn't maintain their position there. We got caught up in that and a bunch of other stuff, another riot kicked off and spilled out into the surrounding area as we were passing by."

"Shit." Angelina murmured almost inaudibly, not quite having expected something like that agian so soon, "How bad?"

"Pretty bad, we've ben barricaded in here for the whole time. We found you out in the middle of nowhere, took care of you and brought you with us. Figured we could help you more here before we started looking into the purifier."

"Didn't work." Angelina grumbled, "Any idea how it is... out there?"

"Not really. We showed up as the whole thing spilled out into the wasteland, almost got caught up in it, ran back this way and barricaded ourselves in a storage room. Found it turned into an infirmary already, the whole place pretty fortified. Guess it's left overs from before. They really turned this place into a fortress."

"Good." Angelina nodded, trying to think for a moment, "Weapons?"

"Not much." She admitted, looking to Jim who held up his 10mm pistol, "Couple of SMG's too, that's it... and your rifle."

"Good enough. When can I go?"

"Soon, though your leg is pretty messed up. You should stay here." The woman insisted, "You... seem to know what you're doing, no matter what happened out there you're definitely more capable than either of us. Just stay, get better, and we'll all leave when things calm down."

"I have to go." Angelina spoke slowly, deliberately, attempting to get across how important it was that she left as soon as possible, "It's... important."

"Alright." She sighed, "Jim?"

"Fine by me." Jim shrugged, "Don't know how well it'll work out but we can't keep anyone here with us."

"So you keep saying." Angelina managed, looking up at him, "Get me outta this bed... gimme my gun... I'll be fine."

"You're welcome to go now if you insist." Jim grabbed Angelina's rifle and laid it across her lap despite his partner's protests, "I didn't like having to take you with us. I knew you were trouble. Everyone always is."

"You're no fucking prize yourself." Angelina forced herself to sit up completely in her bed and threw her legs over the side, grabbing her rifle as she did so.

"No, no, please!"

"Let her go!"

"I... Jim... fine."

"Move." Angelina batted them out of the way as she got otu of her bed and almost collapsed, having to put more weight on her uninjured leg to stay up right, "Stay here if you want, I have to go."

"Just go, before Carol starts begging you to stay."

"Fuck you." Angelina started walking, an obvious limp in her step though walking didn't her as much as she expected, thanks to the Med-X still taking effect.

Angelina made her way out of the building with Jim Carol following close behind, all three of them carrying guns though the once again active sentry guns would have likely stopped any intruders; though they were capable of taking down any one given person Angelina doubted they would last against any group of rioters outside that were determined to get inside, did so, and then started attacking the turrets. Whatever happened there was none of her concern. If some bleeding heart half baked wasteland researchers trying to save the world like Moira Brown and her ilk wanted to stay behind and eventually be trapped in their hopeless dream and killed it was none of her business. They might very well have saved her but Angelina had lost her payment for Jones' caravan, was horribly injured, and now had to endure wasteland life even longer - something she had quickly learned to despise despite never being able to bring herself to eat a bullet, overdose or otherwise obliterate her horrendous existence, a stain upon the larger stain on the world that was the post-apocalyptic wasteland. 

"Sounds like they're still going at it. Have fun out there." Jim muttered as they approached the exit, firmly secured and still standing up to the riots going on outside.

"More fun than you'll have when they finally get in here." Angelina smirked, "Have fun with that. Asshole."

The sealed main entrance opened and all Angelina could hear was shouting and shooting, nothing new to her, finding someone beating someone else senseless with a baseball bat right in front of the door. Angelina didn't hesitate to put a bullet in the bat wielding woman's head before she realized anyone was there. Angelina limped along as fast as she could to the edge of the walkway and took a quick look around, chaos all around just as there had been at Girdershade except on a far greater level.

"Shit... shit..." Angelina muttered as she took aim and put down another Rivet City resident, this one beating a security officer with a pipe, now realizing her decision may have been a bad one after all.

The purifier was once again sealed off however and Angelina had no choice now but to keep going and so she did, mostly left alone as she limped along save for a few security guards that had to be put down. Apparently the rioters were too busy attacking the security force and destroying as much as they could to bother Angelina - who probably looked like another one of them as she stumbled around shooting guards which suited her just fine. The fewer people that bothered the barely recovered Angelina the better; those who did would be dealt with same as usual, if only a little more slowly. In the distance as she stepped over a couple of bodies Angelina could see Rivet City going up in flames as well, though the bridge had been retracted the riot had started from within and was still going strong. Angelina simply ignored all of this and kept walking starting to head north along teh coast instead of heading deeper into downtown, intending to head to Megaton, replace her lost supplies and then head for Canterbury Commons. The entire caravan was wiped out but Angelina still had a few Canterbury big shots to deal with who had essentially been behind the entire thing, once they were dead Angelina wasn't entirely sure what she would do.

After a few moments Angelina was drawing further and further away from the riots which now focused on the Jefferson Memorial and the purifier housed within, Jim and Carol's fate sealed now that they were surrounded. Angelina didn't know or care what they planned to do, their foolish attempts to save the wasteland had brought them there, if they couldn't adapt and survive then that was on them. Angelina had already learne how to do that and now that useful skill would get her through her quest for revenge. Not at all concerned with the spreading chaos and the destruction it would surely cause Angelina kept soldiering through it all, her body not nearly ready to be moving like it was but eventually Angelina had made it far enough that the gunshots and screams of pain and misery had started dying out and sounding distant, almost in another world. An hour or so later and Angelina was approaching the rear entrance to what had once been known as Dukov's Place, the sign long having been destroyed once it's owner had allegedly been killed by the Lone Wanderer, the legitimacy of such claims being heavily disputed among the wasteland. For many the location had become a safe stop along the way to and from Rivet City, the unwritten rules being that anyone that messed with the shared safehouse would be found and hurt, badly. It had served Angelina well once or twice before but she had avoided using it to avoid having to deal with other people but now she had no choice. If Angelina didn't find somewhere to rest she was going to collapse again and as much as she wanted to keep going without stopping to rest Angelina was thinking a bit more clearly, the Med-X starting to wear off, leaving only fatigue in its place.

"God." Angelina held her head in both hands as she slumped against a wall and slid to the floor, cradling her head, elbows on her knees, "Shit... feel like shit."

Angelina knew it was an understatement but wasn't feeling the full effects of her injuries and general fatigue just yet and didn't plan to if it was at all avoidable - and it was. Fumbling around for a moment until she finally got her pack off of her back Angelina rifled through it for a moment before finding what she had been looking for. The large syringe full of red liquid would instantly be known to anyone in the wasteland as Psycho, the drug of choice of many raiders, and more common among their ranks than in any other wasteland society, perhaps because of its energetic uplifting qualities which allowed one to flip out and fly into a violent frenzy that was nearly unstoppable. Perhaps its association with raider was what had kept Angelina from partaking outside of when she absolutely had to, preferring other chems, now however Angelina definitely needed Psycho if she was going to pull herself together and make it all the way to Megaton without stopping or keeling over.

Angelina carefully inserted the needle into her arm and took all of the Psycho knowing it was a safe dose even for someone with as low a tolerance as hers. It didn't take very long for the Psycho to take effect, another upside to the powerful chem and Angelina could feel it coming on, the sudden distinct rush that nothing else came close to. Suddenly she was lively, energetic and ready to take on the world, unable to sit still Angelina was already back on her feet, throwing her pack onto her back and grabbing her rifle to begin her journey anew. Angelina left Dukov's Plae, her ever so brief visit over she haded north alone the water front, intending to follow it as far north as possible before heading off toward Megaton. Angelina's trip proved rather uneventful as she hurriedly made her way along the ruined coast not running into a single person, suspecting perhaps word had gotten out about what had happened abck west, or to the south, and everyone was on edge and Angelina couldn't say whether or not that was true as she had ben out cold for a while and had apparently missed much in that time. Whatever the case Angelina didn't care to talk to anyone on the way to or from Megaton or even once she was in the city itself, not anymore than she had to at any rate and she was already starting to formulate a plan as she ran along, Psycho still keeping her going.

Some time after starting her journey to Megaton Angelina was finally approaching the city's entrance, starting t run again as she drew closer, slowing down only as she reached the city so that the lone guard above the entrance didn't open fire but quickly made her way inside without speaking a word to him or anyone else as she made her way into the city, taking a quick look around, not caring whether or not they noticed she was clearly not sober - more than once the trigger happy sherrif had put down chem soaked crazies in the streets of Megaton. That was exactly who Angelina went looking for as it just so happened, barely stopping to ask someone if they had seen him before marching off to Moriarty's where he was apparently handling a drunken brawl that not even Moriarty himself had managed to sort out. By the time Angelina got there Lucas Simms had already sorted things out, taking the opportunity to remind everyone who the law was around there, and Angelina confronted him outside of the bar, telling him she needed to speak with him about something urgent somewhere they would have some privacy - and Lucas lead her back to his place, which had come to act as an office when need be.

It was at Simms' house that Angelina trained her rifle on him and demanded that he disarm watching carefully as he set his rifle down on the flor along with a pistol and knife, slinging the rifle over her shoulder, tucking the pistol into her belt and simply kicking the knife away, not having room for it she demanded ammo and received plenty of it for both weapons before putting a single round through his skull and made her way back outside as calmly as ever, everyone confused as to where the gun shot came from exactly due to its muffled nature Angelina played the part of confused citizen until making it outside and making a break for it, taking off full tilt withotu worrying about Stockholm spotting her or alerting anyone - she would be long gone by the time they got outside let alone did anything about it. If anyone even came close to catching her Angelina would gladly kill them just as she had Simms, they were nothing to here and they certainly wouldn't stand between hr and Canterbury Commons. Angelina was going to make it, she had all she could carry and all that mattered, weapons and ammo - anything else she wasn't carrying in her pack already could be scrounged up along the way if necessary.

"Gotta make it." Angelina murmured to herself ignoring the angry shouting she was leaving in the distance as people scrambled to get out of Megaton and catch up with her.

Taking her pack off and rifling through it as she kept jogging Angelina dug out another dose of Psycho, her last dose hadn't worn off completely but it was going quickly, stopping only briefly enough to take it Angelina dropped the empty syringe and kept moving now re-energized and ready to finish her trip to Canterbury Commons. Once she got there Angelina wasn't entirelyl sure how she would find out who was behind Jones' scheme or how she would deal with them just that she would, and once that was taken care of she would likely have to leave, something she wasn't eager to do but would regardless; there was nothing to stay for in the area other than her established contacts that she regularly worked for, but work such as hers could easily be found elsewhere. It wasn't much of a plan but it would have to be enough, if it didn't work out Angelina would be dead and unable to worry about it.

"Roe." Angelina decided aloud, knowing if there was anyone she could press for information it was him, the man that still ran Canterbury, "Roe..."

If Angelina could get to Ernest "Uncle" Roe then she knew she could easily make him talk, and he would likely know all about whatever was going on, a man in his position didn't stay there very long unless they were very dim witted or very cooperative - most were the latter. Roe definitely wasn't the type to be able t stand up to a gun in his face let alone much physical pain either, Angelina had met the man on a few occasions, having regularly worked in Canterbury Commons for a while now - he would fold quickly. Several hours later Angelina, still barely functioning as she started to come down off of the Psycho she had taken, practically stumbled into the city limits. No one seemed to be around but Angelina didn't stop, continuing further into the city ignoring the stares she received as she found the main strip in the city center as busy as ever, several caravans coming or going.

"Roe." Angelina stated simply, her voice hoarse and cracking, barely able to speak, "Roe. Now."

"Who the hell's asking for 'em?" Someone stepped forward, rifle in hand, ready to aim it in her direction until he realized who he was talking to, "Angelina? Shit - you look like shit."

"ROE." Angelina repeated her demand more forcefully, taking a couple of steps forward, "It's important... have to talk to him."

The guard nodded, "He's in his office. Everybody clear out, nothing to see here!"

Angelina shuffled down the road and passed the small crowd as the city guards kept everyone moving along, confused as to what she was there for especially in such bad condition, but knew better than to ask - at least before she had finished talking to Roe. After that they would insist on medical treatment, knowing only then would Angelina stop being stubborn enough to accept. For now they let her go on her way as Angelina slowly trudged her way into the proper building and practically collapsed into a chair in front of Roe's desk before he could speak, completely awe struck at the sight of her.

"What the hell happened?" Roe practically demanded, slowly standing up and walking around his desk to take a better look at her, "Where's everyone else? Weren't you with Jones?"

"Yeah." Angelina nodded, struggling to take her pack off and drop it on the floor, keeping her rifle across her lap as she eyed Roe wearily, between exhausted and suspicious, "Everyone... they're dead - raiders. Raiders got everyone."

"Shit." Roe breathed, looking her over, "You alright? You look ready to keel over."

"Fine." Angelina waved him off, "I need to talk... about Jones."

"What about him?" Roe furrowed his brow, returning to his seat.

"What... what was he doing?" Angelina slowly shifted the rifle in her lap, pointing it at Roe without him noticing, "He said... something about working with someone here. Causing problems... something to do with dominating the market here, and causing problems out there to drive up his prices."

"I... Jones? You're sure?"

Angelina nodded slowly, keeping her eyes and rifle trained on Roe behind his desk, "He said exactly that. Said some group or another was funding him. Wanted in on it."

"Shit... that's... you know who it was? I mean I knw who was investing in his caravan, but anyone else? Was it just them? Someone else entirely?"

"No. No clue." Angelina shook her head weakly, "Didn't get into specifics... decided to let me in on things, wanted to bring me aboard - thought I should know."

"And?" Roe's face went pale, eyeing Angelina, waiting for answer.

"Nothing." Angelina managed a shrug as she struggled to string together coherent thoughts and turn them into sentences that were equally coherent, "Raiders. They were all dead before I could even figure out what was happening."

"Oh... well, why don't you stay here - usual room, if you want. Free as always, you do far too much to charge, especially in the shape you're in. I'd feel like I was stealing."

"It's alright." Angelina used her rifle to help her rise from her seat, holding up her hand to keep Roe from doing the same, "What isn't, though, is that you were in on it you son of a bitch."

"What? Wait, wait! Angelina!" Roe shouted as he started to rise.

"Who was it?" Angelina demanded, taking a step forward as she shouldered her rifle, struggling to keep it there and pointing right at Roe's chest, "Names. Now. All of them, damn it."

"Hold on! Hold on! Chirst!" Roe backed away slightly, turning to face a safe he'd installed in the wall, "They're all right here, alright?"

Angelina waited with what passed for patience given the situation and watched as Roe fumbled with the safe and failed to unlock it twice before he finally threw open the heavy door and grabbed a set of documents, nervously handing tem over to Angelina before backing away in a panic.

"Where are they?" Angelina rasped, glaring at Roe as she looked up from the papers in her hand, struggling to keep her rifle pointed one handed at waist height as she did so.

"Christ, I don't know!" Roe looked around desperately, believing with good reason that he was about to die, "I don't know! They're locals, that's all I know, and they paid me to help things along. Keep people from finding out. That kinda thing."

"Always good to have the man in charge on your side." Angelina muttered, her face contorting in what could only be called disgust and rage, "Work out well?"

"More than you'll ever know - shame you're so closed minded." Roe stammered, tripping over his words as he tried to continue, "Maybe we ruined some lives, sure, but we saved so many more! And made them so much better!"

Roe hesitated again, eyeing Angelina nervously before going on, "Canterbury - the entire wasteland - we're growing now. We did what we had to do."

"That's exactly what I'm doing." Angelina set her rifle down on the hair and unsheathed her push dagger as she quickly approahed Roe.

The town official hardly managed to fight back even against his already injured and impaired attacker who was experienced and much more capable than he was. The fight if it could even be referred to as one was over in seconds flat, Roe lying on his back bleeding from his throat and chest, Angelina standing over him as she contemplated her next move and wiped her knife off on a clean part of his shirt while Roe quickly bled out on the floor of his office.

"This should get me outta here." Angelina spoke quietly to herself as she approached the safe, sheathing her knife and grabbing a decent sum of caps, knowing she would need all she could get to get out of town.

Angelina tossed the caps into her back, threw it back on and grabbed the paperwork Roe had handed over before being killed. Angelina had all the names of everyone involved in backing Jones, and in the end responsible for what had happened, and enough caps to get her out of town and on the move one they were all dead. That was more than she could ask for. The only problem would be getting to them - and hopefully doing so before anyone realized anything was going on; if Angelina couldn't keep her activities a secret she couldn't be quite so sure she would make it out alive, not in her current condition, had Angelina not been so badly injured and fatigued she would have been able to take on the entire town and likely win. Angelina couldn't bring herself to care as that thought passed through her head for what felt like the hundredth time. If she died it would mean no more dealing with the wasteland, struggling to get by, to barely survive, having to deal with all the filthy, disgusting characters to be found in the post-apocalyptic world. Angelina would never allow that to happen without putting up as much of a fight as she could however, as that thought passed throug her head she headed downstairs and started considering a diversion of some sort to keep local guards busy if not everyone else - if it was at all possible to take out a few of them in the process that would be even better.

As Angelina stepped out into Canterbury Commons again the battered, rusted out gears in her head started spinning, ever so slowly as she took a look around the familiar scenery. Angelina had worked out of Canterbury Commons for a while, it had always been a good place to pick up work even before she took up residence there and started working for the local caravans on a regular basis. There was always someone in need, and in a place such as Canterbury, successful and large, there were plenty of those people - do to the caravan business they often had more than enough to pay for Angelina's services. Limping along the street Angelina sorted her priorities, it wouldn't be long before someone found Roe alone in his office, as he often was; she quickly made her way to a caravan known for loading up on chems not unlike the late Doc Hoff's caravan which Angelina supposed was no more and would never return. After loading up on all Angelina had decided she would need she and moved on as quickly as her weakened condition would allow, a problem that was quickly remedied by a mixed Stimpack-Pyscho dose, one of which as far as anyone knew was purely beneficial but with the other Angelina knew she was pushing her luck by now. The last two doses had been taken when sober, and then when the first was almost entirely gone, but Angelina didn't have much experience with Psycho - she was already pushing her luck and with the way things had been going it was likely that she would overdose though the thought didn't bother her. It was the thought of dying before Angelina could wrap her hands around the necks of the people behind Jones was what bothered her, death was just an inevitable fact, but vengeance was what had always in some way, shape or form fueled her. It was vengeance that would on that day, one way or another, bring about that oh so satisfying thing known as wasteland justice which was Angelina's favorite brand, though if she had stopped to think about it she would have likely figured that was because she had never been on the receiving end of it. Being captured by raiders was similar, Angelina was sure, but wasteland justice was at least usually just that,, good intentions that were brutal, and sometimes misguided but over all necessary in her mind and not at all like what she and so many others had experienced.

"Where now?" Angelina pulled out the documents she had been given by Roe, having ducked into an unused building toward the outskirts of town, just between abandoned, empty buildings and the city proper, "Where now..."

Angelina clenched her teeth without entirely realizing it as she flipped open the documents and scanned them quickly noting that they were indeed what Roe had claimed, having acted too hastily in killing him to even check to make sure she had what she needed. There were names, dates, locations, detailed enough information about transactions and activities to prove every last one of the men and women involved were guilty, which was enough for Angelina. It might not be for anyone else though, knowing that they could likely buy or scare off anyone that tried to take them down through more proper channels which was something Angelina just wasn't willing to let happen; instead she was going to find them and make them wish they were dead, and then, maybe, if she was feeling merciful she would let them have their wish. The more Angeilna thought about it however the less appealing that thought was, as long and drawn out a death as possible would be best for every single one of them. That satisfying thought in mind Angelina set out for her first target.


	4. Reckoning

Debauched

Reckoning

Angelina had seemingly disappeared into the night by the time anyone had gone in to see Ernest Roe at his office and found him slump over on the floor with several deep knife wounds that had left him dead covered in his own blood. It hadn't been very long before they had figured out what had happened, either, and informed the Canterbury Security Corps as they had taken to calling themselves; they were in essence little more than a more powerful local version of Rivet City's own security, even dressing similarly, though they had a bit more of a reputation for keeping things orderly. Their methods for achieving law and order, however, were somewhat suspect. Even now as the Corps started to go about trying to figure out what had happened and where Angelina had gone they were acting as intimidating as possible, being rather forceful with their questions, the fact that they were the most heavily armed people in the entire town helped their efforts as well; but no one knew anything, Angelina had disappeared, though she had really been moving through town unseen and observing. It was hard staying put and simply watching, only moving when someone came too close or when she had to find a new location to watch from, the Pscyho Angelina had taken in full swing making her rather energetic and much less patient but she managed. The Corps started taking over as word of Roe's death and as the night went on quickly enough the city was under lock down, whoever had left was going to have to wait outside when they got back and whoever was still inside the city limits would not be leaving until the situation was resolved.

"Idiots." Angelina murmured to herself, sticking largely to the ruined buildings on the outskirts of town, watching everyone running around trying to find her, "All of you."

Angelina scanned the now almost entirely empty city streets beneath her from her perch atop an unused, half crumbling building. The Corps had taken up patrols around the city but they would be easy enough to avoid, Angelina had picked up a thing or two about moving around unnoticed in the ruins of downtown and doing so in Canterbury Comons was no different. Slowly, silently Angelina made her way back down to street level and started moving. She was moving through the streets carefully now, slipping into a back alley on her way to her first target. Even with increased awareness and everyone on high alert Angelina knew she could make it to her first target which was close by, and with the lock down in place she knew no one would be leaving, not without drawing plenty of attention to themselves and becoming an easy target at any rate; in the end it was Angelina's knowledge of how Canterbury that gave her an advantage while everyone there had absolutely no clue how to react to her or how she operated. Soon that simple fact would cost them dearly - Angelina would make sure of that.

Pausing to watch a two man patrol go by chatting idly about this or that Angelina sprint across the street as soon as they were far enough to not notice her, ducking into an alley across the street. Turning back and watching and waiting for a moment Angelina decided she hadn't been seen nor heard, proceeding over to the other end of the alley and stopping to wait and watch again. When the coast was clear Angelina moved again, rifle in hand, unsure of how exactly she would pull off her little mission of vengeance and ultra violence without anyone catching up with her but the thought didn't stay in her head long as yet again Angelina reminded herself it didn't matter; she would go through anyone and anything in order to have her revenge. If the people responsible for Jones' caravan and his plans died loudly then they died loudly. If they died quietly they died quietly. Soon Angelina would find out how the first one was to die as she approached the woman's home the far end of town away from the main road leading into Canterbury Commons. Nancy Peterson had, according to the documents, been an important individual in Canterbury for some time which explained why the name seemed so familiar to Angelina; it went on to say Nancy held a job working for Roe and had access to some particularly sensitive information, often helping cover up their activities. For that she would pay with her life.

Angelina slowly crept up to the door of what looked like had one been a shop of some sort, apparently now serving as a large home instead, which suited her just fine as it meant there was a back door to sneak in through. Angelina quickly set about picking the lock and found it was far easier than it should've been especially for someone of such importance in what was easily the most successful settlement in the entire DC area. The mistakes of the residents of Canterbury would cost them dearly on that night. Angelina slowly crept inside and shut the door quietly behind herself, gripping her rifle tightly in both hands as she stood and scanned the room around her. Nothing and no one to oppose Angelina she silently started making her way through the business turned household and started searching for her target who Angelina was sure was likely holed up in her room cowering in fear, afraid of what might happen, likely already figuring out that Roe had been killed because of what they had been doing to assist Jones. With that thought in mind Angelina didn't mind taking her time as she quietly made her way through the first floor of the house, carfully scanning each room for her target or any potential threats - someone that important likely had a bodyguard, or otherwise someone had been assinged to her when Roe had been found dead.

As it turned out Angelina's assumptions were correct as she dropped to a low crouch, hearing someone shuffling around in the last room on the bottom floor - at least she assumed she was right. If it was Nancy she was oddly unconcerned, which would lead to her death. Angelina carefully made her way into the room and took aim at the person simply standing there staring back at her. Neither of them spoke for an agonizingly long, slow, silent moment as Angelina stood and took a step forward.

"Nancy Peterson."

"Angelina." Nancy nodded slightly in her direction, barely holding back an emotional outburst, "I- I know why you've cme. I know I deserve it, all of it. I know you've come to-"

Angelina cut off Nancy as she charged the other woman and struck her across the face with the stock of her rifle, sending her to the ground in seconds, smashing the butt of her rifle into Nancy's face breaking several of her teeth before she struck the almost entirely defenseless woman again breaking her nose rather loudly causing blood to pour steadily over her battered and broken face. As Angelina kept up her assault she started striking Nancy all over, sure she had crushed something important as she brought her rifle down on Nancy's throat and she coughed in horrific pain, starting to gasp for breathe between blows all over her cowering body. Angelina wasn't satisfied until she was ready to fall over, pass out, or both, leaving a bloody, battered and absolutely broken woman cowering at her feet, hardly able to defend herself beyond covering up and hoping the blows didn't do much damage as they continued raining down upon her; Angelina had once been in a similar situation but Angelina had done absolutely nothing to bring on such a vicious, brutal attack that had nearly killed her and had shattered her life completely. From that moment on she had realized there was only one way to truly survive in the wasteland and that was to fend for yourself, and if you were unable, then you would die - if you provoked someone to attack you, able to defend yourself or not, then you definitely deserved a slow, painful death.

Angelina stood panting over her victim who Angelina knew was as close to death as it was possible to be without actually being dead, simply panting, her chest and armor heaving, sweat dripping down her brow. After a moment Angelina raised her booted foot and brought it down in one final blow and with a sickening crack snapped Nancy's neck. Her first target taken out without a fight Angelina simply moved on, sliping back out the way she had entered, carefully waiting for the right moment to move from the shadows. According to the documents she had obtained Angelina was now headed to a nearby building, another house, where Christopher Richmond lived; Chris' crimes and thus his involvement in Jones' plot were a step above that of Nancy, having been more actively involved, more of an enforcer using his own intimidtating presence and influence in the Security Corps to get things done. The file went on to say he was the former head of the Corps, which would explain his connection to it and how he was able to get his way, even without having to fully explain things, or how he could cover something up and trick the Corps into doing his dirty work. Whatever the case Angelina hurried across another nearly empty street just as soon as a passing two man patrol went by, ducking into another alley as quickly as possible, though Angelina had messed up as she kicked a tin can she hadn't seen upon entering the alley.

"Fuck." Angelina clenched her jaw, back pressed against the wall, Psycho pumping through her still as she waited for the guards to draw closer.

As soon as the two unwitting patrolmen were close enough Angelina swung out of cover rifle first and pulled the trigger as soon as she had them in sight, her burst starting low catching one in the leg just above his knee and stitching its way wildly up to his waist. Angelina didn't bother letting go of the trigger as she stepped out into the open and started advancing, riding the recoil right into her next target and tracing an uneven row of bullet holes across his chest before the man could react properly. Without wasting time Angelina sprayed what remained of her magazine into the fallen men and reloaded as she started moving again, rushing into the alley and running toward the far end. Her position may have been given away but driven by Psycho fueled rage and blood lust Angelina didn't care, almost excited at having the chance to tear apart Canterbury in its entirety instead of having to skulk around in the shadows. Angelina sprang out of the other end of the alley and didn't bother bringing her rifle to her shoulder as she opened fire on someone as they stepped outside of their house and began raising a pistol, dropping like a puppet with cut strings. Angelina put a quick burst into the woman's head splattering blood and brain matter all over before she started moving again now out in the open, running along the sidewalk. Up ahead was Angelina's second target, two men standing in front of the entrance to the house he was in, already scrambling for cover and taking aim at the chem fueled rampaging mercenary.

Angelina was operating on instinct without much thought for what she was doing or what was going on, or so she would have thought if she had the time and ability to think about the current situation; instead she was largely still being fueled by Psycho rage and an already present determination to kill every last living thing in four square miles. Angelina brought her rifle up to her shoulder as she slowed down, if only slightly, and fired off a short burst at one of the men who ducked behind a long since destroyed husk of a pre-war vehicle, barely managing to avoid being struck by the stray rounds coming his way. Angelina simply fired again striking the rusted out shell of a car before turning and shooting back at the other man who had started taking pot shots at her from behind a light post which was flickering on and off making figuring out exactly where he was even more frustrating a task as Angelina simply opted to empty her magazine and quickly reload, never breaking stride as she did so. Not five seconds after reloading as Angelina raised her rifle to her shoulder again Angelina could feel a sharp jolt just underneath her right shoulder; not quite painful, not quite as much as it should have been at any rate, but more than noticeable as if Angelina had just been sucker punched by a Super Mutant. Angelina stumbled, her steps thrown off by the sudden sensation of a bullet imbedding itself in her, turning to maim, mangle and murder whoever had shot her only to be met with a short fusilade striking her left forearm and the back of her left hand, armor chest plate several times, and left leg above the knee. Angelina hardly noticed as the force of the round to her arm pulled her hand off the front end of the rifle but she simply kept shooting, stock tucked between her arm and body, firing wildly from waist height.

Angelina's wild shooting resulted in two things one a split second before the other; first one of her attackers had been struck in the mouth by an errant round that had somehow actually found its mark and the second was that her rifle fired the last round in the new magazine already. Fumbling to reload Angelina found that despite the Psycho coursing through her - or perhaps it added to the problem - her off hand had lost its fine motor skills, barely able remove an empty magazine and simply drop it instead of keeping it as usual for later re-use, finding a new one, grabbing it, extracting it, loading it and cocking the rifle. All of this would normally have been a seconds long process had Angelina not been struck in the hand and been working on massive amounts of adrenaline and Psycho to stave off fatigue and weariness. Regardless of her fumbling to perform a simple reload Angelina caught her other two attackers in the middle of their own reload, gripped her rifle with both hands now, and put two protracted bursts into each of them, confident in the results of such close range blasts as she turned back around and start side stepping diagonally moving forward and across the street. Going back to her original two enemies Angelina eventually move to the opposite side of the road and had a clear shot at the man crouched behind a wrecked pre-war car and took the shot, missing wildy for the most part only two rounds of her burst managed to catch him in the face and send him straight to the ground in a bloody heap. Angelina took aim at the second man just as the light above him flickered and died out completely just as he was beginning to shoot at her, his muzzle flash clearing showing her where he was; Angelina dropped to a knee and returned fire over the hood of the rusted monstrosity that once passed for a car, hearing the satisfying sound of someone screaming in pain as they fell to the ground. Quickly making her way across the street Angelina ignored all the blood dripping all over herself and her gun, finding it somewhat hard to keep a good grip on her rifle as blood poured out of her injured hand; regardless Angelina casually strolled up to the injured man and put several bullets unceremoniously into his head splattering its contents all over himself and the sidewalk as the report from the burst echoed down the cramped, quiet, rather acoustic streets of Canterbury Commons carrying loudly for quite a ways before dying off.

Angelina ignored the already loud report of her rifle only made that much noisier by the acoustic nature of the environment and sprayed the door before he before kicking it open and storming in; rifle shouldered and ready to go Angelina was confronted by absolutely nothing - the brief moment of peace ended as someone practically dove from one room at the far end of the building to another, wildly spraying automatic fire in her direction as they did so, appearing to be another Canterbury Security officer. Angelina was lucky enough to have been missed before she could step further into the house and duck down, taking aim and waiting, having no real cover to get behind at that point in time. The man didn't show himself again after a brief moment and Angelina proceeded impatiently in her high crouch seeking to find and beat, strangle or otherwise horrifically kill him for standing between her and her target. The Corps officer tried to swign back out with his sub machine gun but Angelina was already all over him, brushing his gun off to the side with her own and striking him in the face as hard as she could manage with her rifle; the officer dropped his weapon and reached out to take hold of Angelin'a rifle as he reeled back, clenching his teeth and beginning to wrestle over the weapon with her. Angelina returned the struggling man's death glare as she fought back twice as fiercely despite hardly having the use of one hand which was also slicked in blood and hardly able to keep a hold of her rifle, beginning to swing around back and forth taking turns running into objects and slamming into walls as the two exhanged low kicks to each other's legs. Eventually the officer got the upper hand as he pulled back toward himself pulling Angelina toward himself, throwing her off balance, and then pushing forward forcefully slamming the rifle into her face sending her reeling and tumbling over onto the floor. Angelina continued rolling backward, simply letting her momentum carry her she came up in an unbalanced crouch and fell back slumped against a wall, hurriedly drawing the pistol she had taken from Lucas Simms' as her own rifle was turned on her. Angelina was just fast enough as she yanked the pistol from where she'd been carrying and started firing with wreckless abandon only half aiming at her extremely close target hitting him with most of the shots until the pistol was empty and he'd hit the floor soaked in his blood already from the numerous wounds he'd just received.

Angelina fumbled to reload her pistol before looking up at the door she'd come through, someone stepping inside with a shotgun in hand, not seeing her immediately in the dark she started shooting as quickly as possible being met with two shotgun blasts that found their way into the walls and the woman slumped over against the side of the stairs and then fell over onto her side. Angelina slowly stood smearing blood all over the wall before stepping over and quickly putting a bullet in the woman's head before holstering her pistol and grabbing her rifle again and starting up the stairs with what passed as caution, though she had for the most part thrown that out the window a long time ago. Whatever the case Angelina ground her teeth furiously as she headed up stairs, uselessly wiping her injured hand off on her pants, still bleeding steadily and her rifle still soaked in her own blood. Angelina ignored it as she reached the top of the steps, her ears ringing due to all the in door shooting and as she barely managed to plant both feet a shotgun blast violently rang out deafening her completely for a moment as she was struck right in the center of her chest and rather forcefully sending flying back down the stairs tumbling end over end when upon losing her balance. Angelina slammed into the wall at the landing near the bottom of the stairs, smashing her head rather violently against it as she stopped in a sitting position, knocked senseless by the shotgun blast, her fall, and sudden stop all rolled together into ten seconds of absolute confusion. All Angelina could manage to make sense of was that she'd been shot again.

Angelina started to regain her senses a moment later as the spinning sensation subsided and she looked up at the top of the steps, but no one was there, apparently still waiting to see if she would get up and come back at them which she would be doing soon enough. Before that Angelina took a moment to get her bearings, looking herself over and noting that the blast had done a number on her armor but had managed to not penetrate; it had likely however left a large bruise underneath, and may have even broken a rib or two, but Angelina couldn't determine that just yet. That wasn't important at the moment as Angelina was still able to function, though not properly, her mind still clouded and her body failing. As she moved up the stairs just far enough to be able to see above the top Angelina raised her rifle over her headn ad started firing wildly all over into the walls, held her now empty rifle in her injured off hand and managed a much more efficient reload with her uninjured hand before proceeding to the top of the steps once again, managing to ignore what was a somewhat dull but ever present pain in her ribs after being shot again, not sure she would've been able to keep going had she not been dosed up to the eye balls on Psycho.

"Come out here and die already you son of a bitch!" Angelina shouted suddenly, approaching a doorway oddly carefully, kicking it open as she drew close enough to do so.

The doro flew open and hit the wall loudly a split second before the shotgun fired again striking Angelina's rifle in the side of the reciever literally tearing it out of her hands as the load of buckshot mangled the side of the weapon. Angelina stumbled back nearly out of the room, taken aback by the surprising feat - assuming it had been on purpose - and quickly drew the pistol she had stoeln earlier, firing wildly into the room as the man who'd shot her came into view. Angelina's target managed to get off a single shot in return which barely missed taking off most of her head and killing her near instantly, Angelina missing most of her shots as well with only two finding their way into the man's lower abdomen though he simply kept fighting through it. Angelina rushed him with her empty pistol before he could chamber another round and was struck in the stomach with the stock of his shotgun just as she brought her pistol to his face, realizing as she doubled over and barely caught a glimpse of the man's face that it was Christopher Richmond himself; Chris brought his knee up into Angelina's face as she doubled over sending her back to the floor. Angelina landed and quickly regained her senses thrusting her foot up and out slamming it into Chris' stomach as he approached quickly looking to crack her head open with the butt of his shotgun. This time Chris was the one doubled over as Angelina brought her booted foot up again and into his jaw, Chris dropped his shotgun and fell over giving Angelina time to get back to her feet and throw another wild kick to Chris' face keeping him on the ground for the time being as teeth flew out of his mouth and scattered acoss the floor almost inaudibly, both of them still deafened by all of the shooting inside the house.

Angelina recovered from the kick and set her foot down beside Chris who despite shaken bup by the sudden, unexpected blows managed to retaliate quickly, rolling onto his side and reaching out at first to grab Angelina before he spotted the push dagger in a sheath on her boot. Angelina raised her foot again ready to stomp down on Chris and started to bring her foot down forcefully when he lashed out and put her own knife right through the bottom of her boot. Angelina clenched her teeth, nearly grinding them into dust as both pain and anger shot through her and she kept going smashing Chris' hand against the floor jamming the knife's handle into it hoping she broke something in the process or otherwise caused him plenty of pain. With Chris temporarily floored Angelina hobbled backward losing her balancing and stumbling until she fell back into a wall and slid down to the floor, unflinchingly yanking her knife out of her foot, blood pouring out from the fresh wound. By the time Angelina had removed the knife and started to stand, leaning against the wall as she did so Chris had already gotten back to his feet and took the whole two steps to close the distance between them. Angelina spun and thrust her knife straight into Chris' gut a split second after his fist introduced itself to her face busting open her lip and sending Angelina to the floor pulling her knife out as she went.

Chris ground his teeth, clutching his new wound, the two bullets Angelina had put through him earlier taking their toll as well as he slumped against the wall breathing heavily for a moment. Chris was old now, having long since retired, but he could tell Angelina wasn't simply taking a beating all on her own; she was dosed on something or other, seemingly Psycho, something he learned to recognize easily during his years of law enforcement in Canterbury Commons. What Chris failed to realize before he looked up from the floor to where Angelina lay was that she had unslung Lucas Simms' rifle and pulled the trigger just as their eyes met. The Chinese assault rifle's burst struck Chris in his chest and sent him to the floor with a small set of bullet wounds spread out wildly across his chest. Angelina slowly got up and stumbled over, putting another burst into Chris' head as he lay gasping for air still either trying to get up and fight or simply going through the pained motions of death.

The entire battle had been rather short though brutal and Angelina could only now barely hear the sounds of people approaching, most likely more Security Corps officers. As much as Angelina wouldn't have minded taking them on as well she simply didn't have time for it, having three more targets who were no doubt preparing for her to show up now if they hadn't been already. Not minding that her cover was blown Angelina found a window on the second floor and opened it, tossing out her rifle before dropping out the window after it. Landing on the empty gorund behind the house Angelina grabbed her rifle and started moving, starting to dig in her pack as she went trying to find another dose of Psycho and a Stimpack. Finding what she needed Angelina recklessly took her next dose without a care in the world for her safety, only caring about keeping her body from giving out and failing after she'd come so far. Nothing and no one was going to stop her. There were only three more people left alive that needed to be not alive, and preferably introduced to that state of not aliveness by a very painful, hopefully slow death. All Angelina needed was enough time to stop, mend her wounds properly, Stimpacks only good for so much, and figure out where she was headed next. It took some work but Angelina managed to lose all the attention she had, ducking and weaving, dodging and avoiding whoever she ran across somehow managing to avoid being caught again.

"Where to..." Angelian looked up and out the broken window of the empty building that had once been a store she had taken cover in as someone ran by full tilt heading toward where she had just been.

Remaining tense for a moment even as the foot steps faded slightly in the distance Angelina only looked back down at the papers she was carrying when she was sure there was no one around, finding it rather hard to dig through her pack with an injured hand and as with as much Psycho in her system as she hand, having to set down her rifle and dig through her pack with her uninjured hand that wasn't absolutely soaked in blood.

"There you are." Angelina found the location of one of her targets and flipped through the papers until she had the location of the other two, quickly committing them to memory as she left the papers out and started digging around her pack for proper medical supplies.

Angelina only had so long before she was found, knowing now that the entire city was not only on lock down but actively searching every last nook and cranny for her but in the long run her chem soaked mind managed to reason that some medical attention now would do her some good. Carefully moving into a back room with all her gear Angelina started patching herself up, if only so she could avoid bleeing out from her wound, though she was unable to deal with the round that had struk her in the back once the rest of her injuries were dealt with as best as possible given the circumstances Angelina stood, threw her pack on and grabbed her stolen rifle starting to move as soon as she determined the coast was clear. Running down an empty street that was almost dark enough to not be able to see where she was going though that wouldn't have slowed Angelina any let alone stopped her. Not very much would be able to stop Angelina at that point and she certainly didn't feel as if anything could though her thinking definitely wasn't anywhere near clear, almost unable to handle the dose of Psycho she'd taken over a rather short period of time. Heart beating fast enough it literally felt like it would jump out of her chest, teeth clenched so hard they felt like they would shatter, Angelina turned onto another street and kept running along it. Further up ahead she could hear voices, and barely make out a group slowly heading toward her as they turned a corner and started down the street she was on. Angelina didn't hesitate when the thought to kill them all shot through her drug addled brain and quickly raised her rifle and fired a quick series of short bursts at the group luckily striking two of them though both survived their wounds and now lay in the street shouting in pain. Angelina took aim and started shooting again before the group realized what was going on missing wildly this time as she slowed to a fast walking pace and kept shooting.

The group of guards managed to take cover and spread out leaving their wounded comrades for the time being, far more concerned with their own safety and unable to assist them out in the open anyway. Angelina on the other hand simply kept moving forward, albeit not in a straight, easy to predict path, reloading quickly with her uninjured hand and resuming her attack. Another Corps member went down as he moved out of cover to return fire, the rest of the small group remaining relatively suppressed as Angelina kept firing without waiting for tem to show themselves; not too far in the distance as this went on barely aubdile over all the shots ringing out in the night shouting could be heard as the rest of the Security Corps out on patrol that night started getting itself together and surrounding the block the battle was taking place at before slowing moving in.

Angelina and the men she was fighting didn't realize any of this was happening however, both sides desperately exchanging fire now from behind cover no further than fifteen feet apart. Angelina ducked down behind a large chunk of concrete that had once been part of a store front and now lay in the sidewalk, reloading as the city guards kept shooting in her direction missing all of their shots but keeping Angelina from coming out of cover lest she be hit by the massive wall of bullets; even Angelina's Psycho fueled mind could comprehend the fact that doing so would just get her killed even faster - and that meant not reaching her goal. When most of the men shooting at Angelina stopped to reload she swung out and started shooting, striking one in the jaw immediately with a burst that destroyed most of his face in a flash of blood and bone, the man beside him looking down in shock as blood splashed hm and stared down at his dead comrade long enough for Angelina to do the same to him. The last man left simply stood and turned to run, firing off a couple poorly aimed shots back at Angelina, who returned the favor and emptied her rifle into the man's back. It was as Angelina started running down the street again that the rest of the Security Corrps had really started to close in spotting Angelina taking off down the road toward more of them as they closed in from all sides.

As she continued running down the street Angelina slowed down and grabbed a grenade from one of the men she had killed, pulled the pin and hurled it with al lher might as the approaching guards before ducking into a nearby building, slamming her shoulder into the closed door and literally breaking the rotten plank of wood as she barged in. The door shattered as Angelina pushed right through it with no real effort showering her in rotten splinters seconds before the grenade went off injuring or killing several men, she couldn't but could hear at least two screaming at the top of their lungs after being wounded. Two was better than none. That was too less people that would be coming after her and in the end the fact that they were horrifically wouned and screaming in agonizing pain for someone to help them would ruin the morale of their comrades and distract them with assisting the wounded. While everyone was busy scattering to take cover expecting more grenades Angelina headed further into the building looking for a way out only to find most of it had collapsed cutting the building in half forcing her to start climbing rubble, struggling to keep her balance and make her way up to the second floor, using the pile of rubble as stepping stones to get to her hopeful perch where she was hoping to have a superior position to fight it out with the Security Corps. Once she had made it up to the crumbling second level Angelina unslung her rifle and carefully made her way to a window, watching the street below carefully as someone came into view and she took aim. Struggling to control her breathing, her pulse pounding, Psycho and adrenaline making it rather hard to keep herself in check and function properly; despite that Angelina pulled the trigger and most of the rounds she fired struck her target in his side and the man crumpled in seconds flat. Before anyone else could react Angelina had already started shooting again dropping two more men, one of whom was killed by several rounds striking him in the chest and neck in a shower of hot lead. Angelina held down the trigger and swept her rifle over another two men who were both only struck by a single bullet, draggng themselves back into cover as their comrades replaced them.

"Come and get it assholes." Angelina barely spoke to herself loudly enough to be heard, her ears still ringing as she raised her rifle again and started shooting.

"Up there! Shit!" Someone shouted from out of sight, apparently able to pick out where Angelina was shooting from before anyone else.

"Fuck! I can't see her!" Another man shouted, taking aim and spraying wildly at Angelina's general position peppering the walls around her covering them in bullet holes.

"Fucking come on then! Come on already!" Angelina roared, barely able to hear herself, keeping the trigger depressed as she swung her rifle rather wildlly across one side of the street before reloding.

Replacing her empty magazine with a new one quickly enough that no one had time to notice she wasn't shooting anymore, step out of cover and start shooting Angelina started spraying the other side of the road hitting a single woman in a Corps outfit. Someone ran over and grabbed the injured woman who had been struck once in the center of her chest and was barely concious before he too was struck by a bullet to the side of the head splattering his brain all over himself and the wounded woman. Angelina fell back slightly to a position she could still observe the wounded woman from as most if not everyone out on the street opened fire sending bullets flying through the rotting walls left and right. As Angelina ducked down behind a pile of rubble that was once the roof of the building she watched and took careful aim, waiting for someone else to come out of hiding and attempt to rescue their comrade as she bled out in the street. As soon as someone wandered out into the open and into Angelina's line of sight she rewarded them with a quick burst to the leg which shattered the other man's knee and tore apart his leg where the rest of the rounds impacted. Now with live bait that would be screaming and shouting for help Angelina sat back and waited, not bothering to duck as a few stray bullets passed by her rather closely. Yet again someone showed up to rescue their wounded comrades this time three of them, one covering the other two as they started dragging their wounded partners. The one gunman wasn't nearlly enough to suppress Angelina and she quickly returned fire from cover shooting rather wildly at the gunman who fell over after a moment with a stray round in his throat. Several more rounds slightly more well aimed struck the other two several times killing them both leaving their injured comrades still bleeding out in the street.

"Sht... what the hell? Someone get around and fucking go in from the back!" Someone shouted though Angelina ould barely hear it and couldn't make out what was being said at all.

Trying to flank Angelina would prove useless however as several Security Corps guards were already doing so as they approached the battle from the other side of the building only to find large piles of rubble keeping them from even entering the building. Shouting to move around to the street where their comrades were fighting Angelina from she could hear them but did nothing to stop them, though there were windows on the other side of the building, deciding to let them all come to her. Trapped and with no real way out Angelina simply awaited their arrival all too eager to start taking pot shots at the new targets. As she waited for them to arrive Angelina simply moved around back and forth staying away from the window as she fought off everyone else, only keeping them from getting close to her because of her superior positon, they clearly had her out numbered and she had no back up to assist in her efforts. It was Angelina against roughly a quarter of Canterbury if not more, surprised that an angry mob of citizens hadn't formed as well but the locals had never been known for being particularly violent or aggressive instead focusing on business interests. That worked out well enough for Angelina until she realized she was running low on ammo as she reloaded once again.

"God damn it." Angelina turned and carefully made her way across the second floor of the building which was none too stable.

Moving across the unstable structure beneath her Angelina reached the other side of the second floor and dropped out of a window after making sure there was no one waiting for her on the other side. As soon as Angelina's boots hit the ground she could feel a dull, distant pain shoot through her injured foot as her knees bent and she rolled to absorb the impact, coming up in a crouch and standing immediately before scanning her surroundings, taking off down the street which ran parallel to the one she had been on and would take her essentially to the same location while the Corps remained distracted just long enough for Angelina to make her escape and lose them entirely. Angelina kept running down the street as the guards continued firing into what was now an empty building they believed she was still inside, no doubt closing in on it now as they were all gathered together; they would all be sorelyl disappointed upon finding out Angelina had slipped away and disappeared into the night but they would likely see her again and even if not she would leave them even more of a mess to clean up.

At the end of the street Angelina cut through another debris and trash filled alley as she approached her third target who was supposed to have been involved on a much greater level than the two others - all three of her targets left were. They were the three investors, local businessmen who didn't bother doing any work themselves after having acquired enough money to allow someone else to do it all for them. The targets themselves likely wouldn't put up much of a fight considering their backgrounds, though in the post-apocalyptic wasteland it was unwise to assume such things, anyone and everyone could very well to be the one to lay you out with a hole in your head. Even with that in mind Angelina couldn't help but look forward to brutally killing her targets, still not thinking about her own safety in the least, though even if they were capable fighters Angelina would give them more than a bit of trouble before she went down, she had already proven that by taking on anyone that dared to step outside with a gun and get in her way since starting her crusade. Approaching her next destination Angelina stopped in another alley, looking back toward the direction she had come from listening closely, though she could still hardly hear it didn't seem like there was anyone nearby and she could still hear a few shots in the distance which meant they hadn't realized she had left. Angelina turned and made her way out of the alley, thankful for all the useful places to hide in that Canterbury still had, sometimes even right in the middle of the city there would be empty buildings still as well as all of the alleys and short cuts it all made for an easy get away.

Walking across the stret at a steady pace Angelina didn't try to conceal herself as she strode confidently, rifle in hand, right up to the front door of her next target. A solid kick to the door forced it open and Angelina barely broke her stride as she did so, continuing inside and raising her rifle at the same time. The first person Angelina saw didn't have time to react before she'd put several bullets in her, the man she'd been talking to was hit with the same long burst as Angelina kept walking toward him; he went down just as quickly as his partner standing guard with him and both were given a couple bullets to the head to be sure. Another man started coming down the steps to Angelina's right quickly, shotgun raised and ready as she reloaded. The first shot luckily enough missed forcing Angelina to duck off to the side and start shooting without aiming properly, spraying the staircase wildly, backing up away from it and further into the first floor. The shotgun wielding guard didn't waist any time making it down the rest of the stairs as soon as Angelina stopped shooting and swung around taking aim ready to take her head off only to miss again, hitting a wall near Angelina's face as she crouched half behind a doorway, shooting from another room. Unfazed by the buckshot hitting far to close to her face Angelina returned the favor with several bursts of automatic fire most of which struck its target laying him flat on his back. Angelina quickly stood and approached the body, decided he was dead and headed up the stairs looking for her next victim which she quickly found waiting in a room on the second floor not bothering to fight back just like Nancy.

"You." Angelina took a couple steps further into the room, rifle shouldered, "Your turn."

Without waiting for a reply Angelina pulled the trigger and put her last few bullets in the man's chest, approached him on the floor and put another several in his head destroying it in a particularly bloody fashion. Angelina ignored the fresh blood on her boots, already having bled all over herself more than she cared to think about and started on her way back out. Angelina quickly stepped back out the front door and took a quick look around to orient herself before taking off again, running down the street in the direction her next two targets not wanting to stick around and get cornered again before she had a chance to deal with them, she was simply too close now to throw it all away. She wouldn't do that, not now, not when there were only two others left that were within reach. Soon they wouldn't just be within reach but literally in her grasp as yet again the thought of stranling her targets passed through Angelina's mind along with an equally sordid series of other ideas intended to put them through a painful violent death. Then Angelina still didn't know what would happen, didn't quite know what she would do, though Angelina knew that she would likely die before she could leave DC like she had intended; yet again Angelina realized just how little the idea of dying bothered her which wasn't much if at all. Quickly approahing her next destination Angelina ould vaguely make out a large group in the distance with several people coming out of the building Angelina had been headed to, joining the group as they took off headed away from her.

"Son of a bitch." Angelina muttered angrily, her boots pounding against the filthy street as she sped up in an effort to catch up with the group, "Get back here you assholes!"

Angelina kept running as she raised her rifle and began firing wildly at the fleeing group before everyone could turn to face her and react. She couldn't tell if she hit anyone but kept shooting, letting off short badlly aimed bursts down the street. Angelina could vaguely make out someone falling over in the distance but couldn't be sure she'd killed whoever it was she hit, fumbling to reload as she slowed down and ducked behind an old wrecked car on the side of the street in time to avoid being turned into Swiss cheese as the crowd of armed men and women opened up on her steadily backing away as they did so; Angelina simply started blind firing back in their direction swinging her rifle all over the place until it was empty. After reloading again Angelina stepped back out of cover and noticed several more figures laying in the street either struggling to stand or crawling and shouting at their comrades who simply left them behind, completely unwilling to stay with them instead of the people they were supposed to be protecting. Angelina didn't care, the less cohesion and cooperation between them the better, soon she hoped some of them would just abandon the effort entirely and run off to avoid being killed so she could get to her targets that much quicker though Angelina didn't mind slaughtering them all too much either. Running down the street toward the injured Corps guards as the rest of the group started to simply make a run for it and ignore her Angelina couldn't help but smile. As the smile spread across her face Angelina came across the first of many injured people and shot him in the back of the head as he slowly tried to crawl away, quickly proceeding to do the same with everyone else there before any of them could even try to fight back, even those who weren't as badly injured didn't stand a chance.

"Come back here and fight! Die!" Angelina's hoarse voice carried over the dying echo of her gun shots, "Die!"

No one answered, no one returned, they simply kept running heading passed the edge of town and fleeing - driven from their homes by a single angry woman with a rifle. They were all cowards that deserved what they would be getting. Rushing out to the city limits Angelina started shooting again, taking aim at a couple of gunmen who had stopped just outside the city to hold her off while everyone else made their escape and hopefully long enough for everyone else still in the city to catch up and flank Angelina if she held out that long. Already it was clear that wouldn't be happening, whether they realized it or not, as Angelina quickly killed two of them and simply kept advancing without a care in the world for her own safety. Apparently the men she was facing had never faced down any chem fueled, murderous, gun wielding sociopaths as they were stunned by the display and two more were quickly killed when they hesitated instead of continuing to shoot. The two that gunmen that were left reated well enough, though one was now in the middle of a reload as he stood to fall back to a better position, earning himself several bullets to the upper back and neck in the process. The other man held his ground and pulled the trigger sending a single well placed round right through the lower ride side of Angelina's armor; she curled up slightly, her knees giving instantly and fell over onto the ground in surprising pain considering her heavily inebriated state. Once the world stopped spinning Angelina found herself staring up at the night sky, suddenly aware that the round felt as if it'd hit a rib though she couldn't be sure. As she lay there trying to figure out what had happened Angelina realized she had to get up and start fighting again, muffled foot steps slowly making their way toward her.

Angelina quickly, painfully forced herself to sit up and started shooting before she'd even aimed stitching a trail of bullets along the ground and up her targets leg ending just above his waist; the man pulled the trigger on his own rifle spraying wildly as he fell over only letting go of the trigger when he hit the ground. Angelina pushed herself up off the dirt as quickly as possible and started shooting again aiming at the man's chest and moving up from there, starting off in the direction of the escaping group as soon as she finished with him. The group had been moving fast, already having shed half of its members and losing them all to Angelina's blood lust which left no survivors in its wake. The only problem Angelina now realized was that she was nearly out of ammo and didn't have time to go back and loot the bodies she'd left behind - so she simply kept going. It would be rather satisying to kill everyone with her bare hands and having more ammo would get in the way of that; with that thought in mind Angelina slowed her pace and took aim, taking one of the fleeing men's legs right out from under him with a few well placed shots. Another turned to see what had happened though he likely hadn't intended to assist his wounded comrade but either way he was dealt with in a similar fashion leaving him laying on the ground bleeding all over himself and screaming in pain. The group continued moving on out into the wasteland north of Canterbury Commons, wildly firing back at Angelina whom they could hardly see in the darkness at that point. Angelina ignored all of the shooting as she quickly approached her two next victims who had started crawling away slowly, heading in the same direction as the men abandoning them though it would prove a futile effort as Angelina caught up and put a bullet in each of their heads before continuing to persue her targets, who by her count only had a couple of men left with them. They would be more than easy enough to deal with.

Shedding her back which was now little more than dead weight Angelina veered off the path she had been taking and dsiappeared into the night, though the men continued to fire off a shot or two this way and that, confused and alarmed by her sudden disappearece; unsure if they'd hit her or if she was waiting to attack. The more time that passed without Angelina doing so the more frightened the supposedly hardened Corps guards became, unnerved by suddenly being out in the open and unable to see a thing in the settling darkness of late night. With darkness came the inability to make out things clearly for Angelina as well but she stayed close, biding her time, waiting and watching impatiently as she struggled to keep her rage in check; the only comforting thought was that soon enough all of them would be dead or dying, and everyone she could hear back in Canterbury trying to figure out where they had headed off to in the darkness wouldn''t catch up before that happened. They were far too confused and disorganized, slow to mobilize and even slower to get anything done - the fatal flaw of using large groups for what could just as easily be achieved by one or two skilled people. Often enough Angelina was one of those people hired by the very people she was now chasing, she knew how they operated, that they were nothing more than poorly trained men that relied on numbers and the docile nature of Canterbury's citzens to get their way. They would all deserve what they got that night.

Managing to move around to the group's right flank as they slowed their pace, trying not to trip over themselves and each other as they fumbled around in the darkness almost completely incapable of handling themselves outside their comfort zone of the city. Whoever they were, Angelina noted as she moved parallel to the group, they weren't very experienced; her targets had the misfortune to get the rookies, those who had either hardly been with the Corps or had joined after living their entire lives in the city and not knowing much if anything about survival in the wasteland. Angelina on the other hand knew nothing but how to survivfe in the ruins of DC and the surrounding area, a talent that was yet again proving all too useful. The only real disadvantage Angelina was at was the dull but growing pain in her side, not even Psycho was always able to cover up bad enough injuries, and it seemed that she was suffering from one. Whatever her condition Angelina slowly came to a stop as she took careful aim, fighting to control her breathing and steady her aim, steady her entire body - and when she pulled the trigger she ended up missing entirely despite her efforts. Ducking and spinning to face her the group opened fire simaltaneously and Angelina kept shooting hitting her target with her third burst, striking him in the eye by sheer luck he crumpled and hit the ground in seconds.

Ducking down behind a large nearby rock as the return fire became too intense to handle Angelina counted five muzzle flashes - her targets were going to put up a fight this time. She didn't mind. Sitting behind the boulder counting her spare magazines Angelina realized she in fact only had two spares and the one she was currently using was quickly approaching half empty. She decided she would just have to kill the survivors with her bare hands like she had wanted and quickly swung out the other side of the boulder and started shooting again letting off several more bursts that largely missed, kicking up dirt and dust as they struck the area around her as Angelina fired her last round two of her opponents went down, one going limp as he hit the ground and the other rolling over and continuing to shoot from the ground. He was rewarded for his efforts with his struggle to survive being ended cleanly with a bullet under his chin laying him out flat on his back after Angeilna had reloaded. Quickly sweeping her rifle over to the next person over Angelina quickly started unloading on him as well, instantly striking him several times all over his body, killing him before he hit the ground.

"Son of a bitch! She's killing them!" One of her targets shouted as he stood to flee, pistol in hand, firing wildly behind himself without looking back.

Angelina showed him why that wasn't going to work with a string of bullets that struck him just above the waist and watched as the man went down instantly, his momentum carrying im as he hit the ground and rolled over once or twice before coming to a stop. She didn't pause before taking aim back at the only other two left both of whom had started to rise to join their now fallen comrade, fatally pausing as the saw what happened to him; Angelina hit them both center mass more out of luck than skill by that point, she was hardly able to aim anymore. Loading her last magazine Angelina moved out of cover and quickly made her way over to inspect the two bodies, which what they now were, both of them clearly dead. That left only one more before her rampage was complete.

"Youre not going anywhere." Angelina breathed heavily, crushing the crawling man's hand as she stepped on it, looking down at him as he bled all over himself.

Angelina took a moment to simply watch as he slowlly bled out wimpering and groaning in pain though he somehow managed to avoid begging for mercy like most would've done. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, he would never have been given any, not for what he'd done.

"They'll find you eventually." The man look back up at her again, seemingly more angry than afraid, "They're coming!"

"I know."

Angelina emptied her rifle into the dying man making a mess of him before dropping the empty rifle and grabbing the pistol he had been carrying, taking a moment to take whatever ammo she could from his corpse before heading further north into the wasteland feeling rather satisfied yet oddly empty. She ignored the latter sensation for the time being however as she saw just how far she could make it before passing out and dying. With any luck she would make it to the Republic Of Dave, which she knew to be capable of treating her wounds before she continued onward, but Angelina couldn't bring herself to care much if at all. She'd already resigned herself to death, almost having expecting to be dead already. It was the only thing left for her after what had happened, there was no life left to live in the ruins of DC which was yet again on the verge of total collapse, and no one would ever believe what had happened even if she had simply told everyone about what had happened, and her targets were far too powerful to actually have been brought to justice. Angelina just couldn't figure out what came next. Everyone was dead. She couldn't go back to her old life. Yet again she had to abandon it and start over but Angelina couldn't think straight enough to do much else other than keep her vice like grip on her pistol and keep walking. Doing just that started to prove to be more and more of a task as time went on and Angelina's doses of Psycho started to wear off allowing the pain in her ribs - and elsewhere - to consume her. Every single step, every last little motion sent flaming hot waves of pain through her body until Angelina simply fell to her knees, panting and staring down at the ground unable to move. She simply sat there taking labored breaths, contemplating simply eating a bullet and dying in a half decent manner but found she couldn't even do that. Instead Angelina fell over onto her side with a grun as she hit the dirt and didn't move, her vision blurring but as it did a figure suddenly stepped out in front of her, spotted her nearly lifeless form and rushed over shouting to another person, this one unseen, before everything went black.


	5. Redemption

Debauched

Redemption

Angelina slowly came to with an intense feeling of confusion, dizziness and sickness in the pit of her stomach and as she woke up those feelings got even stronger until she felt as if she would puke but that relief never came. Instead she sat there with a pained expression on her face and her eyes closed. All Angelina could make out through her intense discomfort was that she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead. She was laying in a bed somewhere with whatever pain killers they'd given her wearing out. She didn't know who they were exactly, or even vaguely, but she knew someone had saved her from her certain death in the wasteland. Yet again Angelina had been saved by sheer luck and most likely more idealistic people who were out to save every last little life they could no matter how likely they were to fail miserably just like those she had met at the purifier. Slowly opening her eyes which hurt as a dull but still too bright light hit them Angelina started to take in her surroundings.

"Hey! Hey, you're awake." A woman quickly approached the bed and took a seat next to Angelina, "Are you okay? Can you speak?"

Angelina strained to do so, barely opening her mouth and croaking out weak, incoherent sounds shaking her head after that, "N-no..."

"Okay, sorry... well, listen, you're alright." The woman smiled gently, looking her over, "We got to you just in time. I don't think you were going to make it much longer."

Angelina simply nodded, her face appearing as blank as ever, or so Angelina assumed. She certainly didn't try to. Perhaps she looked pained, she couldn't tell, she was still far too disoriented to make much sense of what was going on.

"Alright well... I'll be right here, or rather just outside - I'll come check on you every so often. Okay?" She smiled when Angelina nodded again, "Alright... well, go ahead and rest up."

As Angelina began recooperating in her bed she regained the ability to speak, if only barely at first, and that was when she learned where she was and who she was with. As it turned out a aravan headed up to the Republic Of Dave had stumbled across her just as she passed out and brought her the rest rest of the way, taking care of her as best they could as they went. Eventually the caravan had reached the isolated Republic with Angelina who was barely hanging on and had been recovering for quite a while before she had regained conciousness. It was also by pure luck that she had managed that as well as the Republic Of Dave had a hospital now that it had grown but it was still a bit less capable of taking care of its own citizens let alone others compared to any other settlement in the Capital Wasteland. All of those factors combined proved to be worrying when it came to the condition to the Republic's newest arrival, though once she had stabilized and regained conciousness things started to look up, once she started speaking things got that much better and it was decided she would recover almost completely.

Despite hearing the news that she would recover Angelina knew she wouldn't ever be the same after that night physically or mentally. Yet again the wasteland had broken her in its eternally brutal, harsh and violent way. As Angelina started to think about it more and more during her slow recovery she realized she had come full circle as disturbing as it was. She had once been living an average life in the wasteland when it had seen fit to take it away from her and tear her apart, utterly and completely destroying whatever life she'd had and leaving only pain and suffering in its place; from that her second life slowly started forming. Eventually Angelina had built her new life as a mercenary and never looked back. Now she didn't know where she stood, and it plagued her all the way through her recovery, unable to figure out what her new life would be like. It would be easy to keep doing what she once had, but where she would go, that was a major problem. In fact it was the only one or at least the only one Angelina wanted to admit to. For some strange reason she simply didn't feel content with the idea of going back to life as it had been, as if it shoudl change like it had the first time,, but she didn't kow what to do with herself and simply burried that feeling as deeply as she could manage. Soon enough however Angelina had recovered and kept herself busy doing what little her still worn out body would allow to assist the locals, not being able to pay them for their services like she normally would have. It was during that time that she had started to think about leaving, having heard from more traders that Canterbury Commons - and much of the rest of the Capital Wasteland - was still a mess. The riots that had started in Rivet City had spread to much of downtown and all sorts of other violence broke out elsewhere and none of the communities had come out of it unscathed - including Canterbury Commons. That gave Angelina enough time to pay off her debt, recover, and decide what she would be doing with herself.

A month later as the wasteland was still reeling from the massive outbreak of mostly unrelated violent incidents Angelina had packed what little possessions she had gathered during her time in the Republic Of Dave and prepared to leave. Rosie, who had taken over after being elected president, agreed to let her go, considering her debt paid and even gave Angelina a small sum to help her on her way mostly as incentive to point people in their direction should she run into anyone on her way out of the Capital Wasteland. Angelina had agreed, and actually found herself meaning it as the words slipped out of her mouth without thought. Not bothering to stay any longer than she had to Angelina departed as soon as she'd received the paultry sum and headed further north unsure of where she was going or what lay ahead of her. Whatever it was Angelina knew she would be ready for it. Shedding her old self once again whatever happened out there in post-apocalyptic America would serve to shape the beginning of her next life.


End file.
